Heartbleed-A home Invasion

 There are many benefits to running your life with mouse clicks. Who really has the time to visit three different banks, to organize four different accounts, to make sure that both of your rent payments make it on time? The internet is an infinitely useful tool. But like any tool it must be maintained. An axe cannot cut down a tree if you let its blade go dull, and the internet will not make your life easier if you allow it to compromise your security. That is exactly what has happened to an estimated 81% of websites on the internet recently, when they were attacked by what is now known as “Heartbleed bug.”

“Heartbleed” is a massive internet security breach. It is a bug that has essentially corrupted the majority of the encryption software on the internet. This software is responsible for turning all of your information, like your passwords, from the combination of words and letters you enter, to the random assortment of figures that the digital world uses. This allows hackers to not only gain access to what you previously thought were protected passwords and usernames, but also to access information on the internet while posing as you. The two scariest factors of this new form of identity theft are that it leaves no trace or clue that you have been attacked, and that it is not actually that new. Best estimates put “Heartbleed” at approximately two years old. Mixed with the stealth nature of the bug, there is no limit to what could have potentially been compromised. For a more detailed list of what was most likely compromised, see the CNN article “Change these passwords now.”

http://money.cnn.com/2014/04/10/technology/security/heartbleed-passwords/?iid=EL