Have you protected yourself against the Heartbleed bug?

A new virus, or encryption flaw, known as the Heartbleed bug  has exposed the weaknesses in a wide range of popular websites and caused many people all over the world to change their passwords.  The bug, which was found the day before yesterday by Google’s security team might allow any of the listed sites which has been logged into over the last two years to have been compromised.

It could be one of the largest security threats ever on the Internet to date says web authority website, Mashable.

From the Heartbleed website, we find the true intent.

[The Heartbleed bug] compromises the secret keys used to identify the service providers and to encrypt the traffic, the names and passwords of the users and the actual content… As long as the vulnerable version of OpenSSL is in use it can be abused 

Website of a wide variety have been affected including those on the long list below.

But what can you do about it?

Not much. The problem is mostly on servers. A fix is available and being implemented by Web companies. Most experts are advising consumers not to rush out and change their passwords until the fix is complete.  So the best thing to do is:

1) Wait for word from your SSL served websites that a fix has been implemented

2) Then change your passwords (not before)

3) Keep an eye on your Internet banking and transactional account balances over the next week or two for activity that might be suspicious.

What is it exactly?

Servers with “s” in the “https” are meant to be secure servers, and carry a lock in their browser bar.  The lock demonstrates that anything sent or received by that website wont be read by third parties.  But in the case of Heartbleed, the encryption flaw has got into the server, so the problem has to be fixed at the server level before you change your password otherwise the problem will still remain.

So far, some of the services and websites that have confirmed an OpenSSL software security update include WordPress, Amazon Web Services, Akamai and others.

Click here to to see the long list of websites affected.