The Heartbleed Bug is a security vulnerability that puts users’ passwords at many popular websites at risk.  If you haven’t already, change your passwords on the websites affected by the bug.

What You Should Know

The Heartbleed Bug uses a vulnerability in a cryptographic software library.  That library is called OpenSSL, which is meant to protect you using SSL/TLS encryption.  Some of the largest websites use this OpenSSL encryption.

Some of the Known Affected Websites

– Facebook
–  Google
–  Yahoo
–  Dropbox
–  Instagram
–  Pinterest
–  Wikipedia
–  Tumblr
–  Godaddy
–  Intuit (TurboTax & Quickbooks)

What You Can Do

–  Change your passwords to websites that have been affected.  1Password has a great password generator.

–  Heartbleed Checker or LastPass allow you to can see if a particular site is clean before you change your password for that site.

–  For websites that have been affected, hold off changing your passwords until those sites come out with a patch to fix their vulnerability.

–  Do not click on any links or pictures from unknown emails or text messages.

–  Monitor your credit card and bank activity and report suspicious activity.