Earlier yesterday, we were made aware of a massive vulnerability in OpenSSL, the open-source software package broadly used to encrypt Web communications. This flaw called the “Heartbleed Bug” 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.”
This means that all web servers running newer versions of OpenSSL were affected across the internet. Our web server was unaffected by this bug, and while our VPN servers were affected, they were updated to use OpenSSL 1.01g in under 3 hours (you should have received an email about this server maintenance)
As always, do your best to stay safe and private on the ‘net. Use this tool to test any HTTPS/SSL domains to see if they are vulnerable to Heartbleed: http://filippo.io/Heartbleed
If you have any questions or concerns, as always please feel free to leave a comment.