Rams Record

Heart-bleed Virus

By Luke

There has been a recent breach in the internet known as the Heartbleed virus.  People have been exploiting the virus/bug in order to gain usernames and passwords of people on various websites. As a way around this, many sites have recommended, or even forced, users to change their usernames and passwords. Even Mojang recommended that Minecraft players change their passwords, in order to avoid security issues.  Technology experts say that the Heartbleed virus hit 66% of all websites over the past two years.

The term “Heartbleed” virus comes from the communication between two “hearts” on a server. These ”hearts” verify your security as you do your online shopping, banking, and even checking your email. This security breach has been going on for two years, but has only recently been discovered.

Obviously, this breach presents a bunch of problems. One of them is that security sockets, which are used to secure the site, were leaked. This would allow people, who are computer-savvy enough to create a clone of the site, to fool unsuspecting people into logging in.

Many businesses have obviously been worried that they might be affected, and have been checking their own IT systems for security holes. There are a couple of things you can do to prevent data leaks such as this one. Changing your password(s) often is a good way to prevent attacks like the Heartbleed virus. Many employers who have their employees use technology on a daily basis have them change their passwords every 30-90 days. Attacks will be much less likely if you change your passwords every 1 or 2 weeks. A good way to keep your computer safe from viruses is to scan with an anti-virus program, such as AVG, on a regular basis. However, this may not alert you of data leaks, since some try to take the login information on websites, instead of files on the person’s computer.