HEARTBLEED MAY CAUSE RATS IN LABORATORY HUMANS...

RUBBISH...

I'm not downplaying the significance of this threat, and while that was a huge exaggeration [ed. - we all know cellphones cause that right? 'Nuff said], expect strange claims about the "Heartbleed Bug" to surface from news outlets vying for attention by upping viewer stress with salacious reporting designed to make you "Tune in at 10pm" for the latest update.

I've received e-mails and phone calls asking the same question: "What can we do to fix this?". While security experts discover the same flaw from cellphone apps to firewalls to your online bank, it boils down to the same thing that was said on day one: 

"Check the website, and IF it shows "ok", or they have patched their servers - change your passwords. BUT ONLY THEN".  

[If you have an affected app or network appliance, all you can do is wait for the vendor to come out with a patch].

There are plenty of places to check websites individually [I put one in a previous post and two below], with links to articles which had other links to search for affected websites] and developers are already coming out with more automatic search utilities as well as browser plugins like "Chromebleed", which, when installed in your Chrome browser will alert you that the site you are on is not safe.

Finally, here are links to some websites that let you plug in a domain name to check the security status -

LastPass - HERE

Qualsys - HERE 

Unless there is some mind-bending news that arises in the future, I think I've spent enough time writing about it without fueling the flames. And yet, a the thought just occurred to me that this would be the perfect time to introduce a huge new malware attack while everyone's eyes are looking at "Heartbleed". 

If I thought about it, you can bet the bad guys have. So keep one eye on "Heartbleed" but don't take the other eye off the ball...



'Nuff Said,
Brian