If you’ve been reading the news lately you’ll have noticed the abundance of coverage on the subject of the ‘ Heartbleed bug ’. If you’re not an IT professional, you may be wondering what exactly this bug is and why everyone is up in arms about it.
The bug is responsible for making two-thirds of the Internet’s important information about its users vulnerable to attackers.
It is a vulnerability in the way your browser communicates with websites over an encrypted channel. Potential attackers could take advantage of the bug to access information from channels which should be secure, such as banks and e-commerce sites.
Heartbleed has been around for two years and has only recently been discovered. If you are a user of a multitude of sites, your information may be vulnerable and you certainly need to change your passwords.
A plethora of services have been affected and can be seen on “mashable.com” by typing in “mashable” and “ Heartbleed list ” into google.
When changing your password, utilise trusted password generator sites such as RANDOM.ORG, pc Tools Password Generator and Strong Password Generator. Don’t choose anything similar to your previous passwords and make sure they are different on every site you use. To make sure the password generators you use are secure, look at the address bar, if you cannot see https://, do not use it!
In order to protect your details in light of the latest bug:
- Check out the list of affected sites on mashable.com and identify which you utilise
- Use a trusted password generator to change and passwords that may be affected and make sure they differ from site to site.
- Make sure to change your password regularly to protect yourself from further vulnerabilities.
If you are a company concerned about the vulnerability of your IT, check to see if your server is affected by utilising the following link: ilippo.io
If you are concerned about your security as a business and would like some advice, please contact borwell on: +44 (0)1684 377980