This new revelation
was made by Cisco Systems and Juniper Networks, two of the world's
largest manufacturers of internet equipment. They have announced that
their products had been impacted by the Heartbleed Bug, leaving your
personal information at risk of being stolen via the networking
equipment you might have in your home or office, including routers,
switches, firewalls etc.
In wake of all these security threats, here are some things you can do to ensure the safety and security of your identity and private information.
Change your passwords for patched sites
Most big websites have patched the problem, so you can go ahead and
change your passwords on them. These sites include Google, Yahoo,
Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Tumblr, Dropbox, GoDaddy, and so on. In
short, most reputable websites have patched themselves.
There's no sense in changing your password for every website though. If your information has been stolen before, it can be stolen again on websites that aren't patched up. Changing your passwords recklessly will draw unwanted attention of hackers, who might possibly be looking for recent password changes. So be advised!
Lay off online purchases for a bit
I know some of you might be shop-a-holics, but it'd be advisable to lay
off credit card transactions for a bit until the dust settles. Your
personal information such as email and physical address, credit card
number and pin code, all might be compromised.
Also, keep an eye on your credit card and bank statements. A hacker with a shred of common sense won't blow his cover by immediately using your credit card for a big transaction. Sometimes, the transactions are barely noticeable. But if your information has been compromised, it is bound to come up on your radar provided that you keep an eye for unauthorized transactions.
Be wary around public Wi-Fi networks
Cisco and Juniper make some of the best and most reliable equipment in
the world. If their devices can get compromised, anyone's can. You never
know what devices a public Wi-Fi is running on, so be extra careful
when using public Wi-Fi networks. Lay off them for a while if you can
help it.
Update device software
Since routers, switches and other such devices are susceptible, vendors
would be working around the clock to release firmware updates and
patches to fix the vulnerabilities. Check with your vendor frequently
for any updates available for your devices, and apply them ASAP! Contact
your ISP for possible updates on home routers.
Turn off router remote access
"In the case of home routers, if it's a router that you purchased
yourself, almost all of them provide the capability to disable remote
access," Adam Allred, a research technologist at the Georgia Tech
College of Computing, told The Huffington Post. "Most routers take the
home network and the Internet that they connect to and split them into
two pieces. Remote access describes the ability to get to your home
router from the Internet outside of your home."
Most people don't really need remote access unless they are trying to configure their router from elsewhere, Allred says. Turning it off can make it less likely for hackers to be able to come in and exploit your home router and it wont change your experience at all.
Lastly, if you run your own website, update OpenSSL to patch up the problem. Usually, good web hosting companies will do this for you.
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