Heartbleed

As many of you may have heard, there was a new security risk discovered that has effected roughly two thirds of the worlds websites.

The Heartbleed Bug is a serious vulnerability in the popular OpenSSL cryptographic software library. This weakness allows stealing the information protected, under normal conditions, by the SSL/TLS encryption used to secure the Internet. SSL/TLS provides communication security and privacy over the Internet for applications such as web, email, instant messaging (IM) and some virtual private networks (VPNs).

The Heartbleed bug allows anyone on the Internet to read the memory of the systems protected by the vulnerable versions of the OpenSSL software. This 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. This allows attackers to eavesdrop on communications, steal data directly from the services and users and to impersonate services and users.

At Commit Marketing, we take these security risks very seriously and do everything in our power to protect our clients, who are hosting with us, from attacks and security breaches. While we understand that it is nearly impossible to be immune to everything and anything, we do our best to stay current and prevent known issues from occurring.

What is Commit Marketing doing?

Commit Marketing has successfully secured the vast majority of our computing infrastructure with patches and other mitigations. Some lower profile services have been taken offline until patches are released and mitigations applied. This is a necessary step to protect Commit Marketing and its customers. We have reached out to all customers effected and have taken the appropriate steps necessary.

What should you do?

While Commit Marketing was effected by this bug, so were roughly 67% of all websites. In order to ensure your own personal security, Commit Marketing suggests changing passwords. Priority should be given to sites accessing private information, financial accounts and email. Note that if the website is still vulnerable, you may need to change your password again after the site is patched. For a list of popular effected sites http://mashable.com/2014/04/09/heartbleed-bug-websites-affected/

For more information about The Heartbleed Bug, visit heartbleed.com. Feel free to contact us if you have any questions or concerns regarding The Heartbleed Bug.