How to protect yourself from the Heartbleed Bug
Updated on July 13, 2021: From now on, traffic filtering, malware protection, and suspicious DNS activity blocking are available as a part of the separate DNS Firewall app.
We are sure you have heard about massive security flow, the Heartbleed Bug has been existing in the Internet for 2 years, and it has been just recently discovered. So how does it work? It opens the door for the cyber criminals to steal personal information without leaving a trace. Initially, the bug can help the attackers gain access to both websites’ secure content and encryption keys that protect that content. Hackers can impersonate a legit site. In this case, users’ information stays vulnerable until site operators catch on and update their software, ensuring the protection against the Heartbleed Bug. But there is a solution that can solve this problem and protect the online users.
The “Bug’s” Hard Facts
Experts are describing a problem of Heartbleed Bug as critical. It continues to spread fast. Let’s review basic facts.
- The Heartbleed Bug has been discovered by Google research team and Finland security firm.
- The bug has already got its own icon, which is a heart with spilling red paint that resembles blood.
- The reason why users should pay attention to it is because it has a direct impact on encryption technology. Right now we refer to the encryption that is used to protect emails and passwords, including sensitive credit card information.
- You may have stumbled upon the websites that start with ‘https://’ with enclosed green padlock. This combination is used to signify whether the website offers extra safety and protection. But Heartbleed bug creates an opening affecting the content through OpenSSL.
- In Canada, experts acted quickly to protect taxpayers because the electronic bug has entered the CRA system. The news has announced that it was critical for users to change their usernames and passwords to protect their personal information as this won’t leave a chance of information stealing, but is not completely true.
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If the bug is detected in the system, it is the signification hatch where users are put at risk. According to the statistics, over 2/3 of active websites on the Internet run on OpenSSL and 2 out of 3 computers on the Internet do have the problem. Presently, it is extremely hard to assess how much damage has been done, but if you take into consideration that the bug was performing unnoticed for over 2 years, a great number of users were already put at risk. In Canada, the CRA electronic services, used for tax filing, was forced to shut down in order to re-protect their online system.
Why are you at risk?
It could be your ecommerce provider or local small jewelry store that sells goods to you electronically, your check software, etc. Yahoo had a problem. Just imagine this software is almost on all servers on the Internet. While some people rely on the username and password change, but it is not going to protect them reliably by 100%.
How can You Protect Yourself?
The reason why VPN Unlimited is your number one online protection because it does not use the encryption vulnerable to the bug. OpenSSL is a combination of data encryption mechanisms and VPN unlimited service does not use this particular OpenSSL 1.0.1 or 1.0.2-beta combination. It means that VPN Unlimited users are not vulnerable to the Heartbleed bug whatsoever. For additional security and extra protection, VPN Unlimited technical team have renewed and patched all servers and online libraries. VPN Unlimited customers stay protected around the clock.
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