Heartbleed: What You Need to Know to Protect Yourself

If you are like me, the technical surrounding the Heartbleed virus go right over your head. What we need are simple instructions for what to do about it. From everything I have read over the last few days, protecting yourself boils down to three key points:

• Determine what sites you use have been impacted by Heartbleed, and if they have patched the vulnerability.
• If the site has been impacted by Heartbleed and has not been patched, don't change your password yet.
• If the site has been impacted by Heartbleed and has been patched, change your password.

So, how do you know what sites have been impacted by Heartbleed? How do you know what sites have been patched? To help answer those questions, here are three sources I have found helpful:

• This article lists major sites which were or were not impacted. It is a good starting point, because it addresses such sites as Paypal, Evernote, Yahoo, Amazon, Twitter, and Google. Virtually everyone will see a listing which either eases their mind or puts them on a heightened state of alert. 
• This post from CNet.com is constantly being updated. Visit it daily until there are no more sites labeled as "awaiting response" which you use.
• LastPass has established a page which allows you to enter any URL and see its Heartbleed status.

As with any other security compromise, changing your password is the way to stay protected. However, wait until the site is patched before doing so.

Using Google 2-Step Verification

When someone else has your password, it's bad news. Even if you use different passwords for different sites, just having a compromised password for one of those sites is bad enough, especially if it's a site where you have stored valuable or sensitive information.

Several weeks ago, I read this account of Mat Honan's plight. Teenagers hackers were able to access Honan's iCloud, Gmail, and Twitter account. They destroyed data and sent offensive Twitter messages on his behalf.

Google has provided a 2-step verification method for it's users. Two-step verification is optional. This video explains the process:




Anyone using 2-step verification now? Have you found it easy? Anyone have a horror story about a compromised password?

How Secure is Your Password?

In a digital world, keeping our data secure is essential, and a large part of that is password security. How secure is your password? Want to put it to the test?

At How Secure is My Password? you enter your password and instantly see an estimate of how long it would take a computer armed with the proper software to determine your password.