Security on the boards

Dear Members:

As some of you no doubt have heard, the Internet has been struck by a serious security vulnerability, called the “Heartbleed bug.” For those who wish to do further reading about it, here is an assortment of articles:

http://money.cnn.com/2014/04/09/technology/securit...
http://time.com/55337/how-to-protect-yourself-agai...

The short story is that most websites use an encryption framework called OpenSSL to protect data that is transmitted over the Internet (such as credit cards when you make an online purchase, or your username and password when you sign in to a website). The Heartbleed bug makes it possible for hackers to decrypt data transmitted to and from websites that are using the vulnerable version of OpenSSL.

All Breastcancer.org servers were updated to use a patched version of OpenSSL as soon as the patch was made available (early in the morning ET on Tuesday April 8, 2014). We believe that there is a very small chance that any information has been compromised. As an additional precaution, we will be replacing all SSL certificates over the next few days.

That said, it would be prudent for all users to sign out, clear your browser’s cache, delete all cookies, and then sign back in and immediately change your password. Here are some tips on creating strong passwords that are also easily remembered:

http://time.com/15908/best-password/
https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2014/03/cho...

Please let us know if you have any questions. Thanks!

The Breastcancer.org Team.