April 14 2014
This post comes to us from the Market Leader blog:
You may have heard about the destructive security bug, "Heartbleed," that attacks a vulnerable flaw in major online security systems enabling it to access encrypted data. Warnings about Heartbleed are loud and alarming for good reason.
Don't ignore the ever-increasing need for vigilance in protecting your data. The Heartbleed Bug launched about two years ago, and there's no way for you to know what may have been compromised by this vulnerability, including Web, email, instant messaging, and some virtual private networks.
So we encourage you to practice good security measures, like remembering to change your online passwords. (Yea, yea, we know—it's like hearing your dental hygienist reminding you to floss—but it's gotta be done!)
Here are some excellent tips on protecting yourself and/or your brokerage along with links to more technical details and helpful information to use with your sphere of influence.
Heartbleed is a security flaw that was found on OpenSSL, a popular cryptographic library that is used to secure a huge chunk of the Internet's traffic—basically any site that has "https" in the URL. Even if you have never heard of OpenSSL, chances are, it's helped secure your data in some way.
As ActiveRain's Nikesh Parekh suggests, blogging about the Heartbleed bug and sending an email to your contact database with a link to your blog post is a great opportunity to offer service to your prospects and customers.
Rest assured, Market Leader customer information continues to be safe. We have been fortunate to have suffered no security breach, and our brilliant IT team continues to stay one step ahead of the latest cyber villainy.