Friday 11 April 2014

Heartbleed Bug: What should you do?!

Heartbleed Bug
I don't usually do tech posts (even though I'm geeky and love how computers work) but this is really important because you need to protect yourself against the 'Heartbleed Bug' which has come to light recently. The Heartbleed Bug is a flaw with encryption. I'm sure you've seen those world war 2 spy movies where they send secret messages using a special code, well encryption is like that. It's like a secret language a website uses to talk to your computer which technically no one else should be able to understand. With heartbleed this process is flawed and allows people who shouldn't be able to to read some of the secret information about you which is stored by websites, so things like login details may be compromised.

This message code remains uncracked 70 years later!
The problem has affected a lot of websites but most have been able to patch (fix) the problem. The advice out there is to change all your passwords, but you should only do this once you know the problem has been fixed on the particular site you are using. mashable.com has produced comprehensive, if rather Americo-centric, list of websties which have or have not fixed the bug so be sure to check that out and change your passwords accordingly.

I hope you've found this helpful!

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Did you know that in the film Toy Story, Sid's hallway carpet is the same design as the hallway carpet in The Shining? That's well creepy.

Heeeeeeeeeeeeres Jonny!