The KeePass Password Safe icon. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

You’ve probably read a little about Heartbleed by now and you either understand the details or not. For some additional reading you can visit heartbleed.com. Either way, you are, and should be, worried if this is going to affect you directly. The answer, probably. Not all sites and software rely on the security torn open by Heartbleed but many do. For these locations which are currently vulnerable you will need to confirm that they, the site owners, have fixed the issue BEFORE changing your passwords.

How do you do that? Go to Heartbleed Test or Heartbleed Checker and type in the site you’re worried about, such as your banking site.

If it comes back green it was either fixed or never had a problem. I recommend a password change anyway. You are probably overdue for one.

If it comes back red, check back again later until it comes back green. Then change your password.

I think you’ll find at this point that many sites have fixed the issue, but it can’t hurt to check.

For those who are interested in the related CRA website shutdown from Heartbleed, read this story as well: ctvnews.ca.