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The main reason you shouldn’t worry about Heartbleed

If you’ve been following the news lately, you’ve heard of Heartbleed and its effect on numerous websites that previously were thought to be secured via your HTTPS connection.

That little “lock” symbol may not have been as locked as you were lead to believe.

But what if we told you that Heartbleed was nothing to sneeze at, and why you shouldn’t be worried at all about Heartbleed in the first place?

Norton Antivirus
Norton Antivirus

It’s all because of a recent PEW INTERNET SURVEY that reported the following security issues in the US, none of which are directly related to Heartbleed and would be a problem without that SSL issue:

  • 18% of US Internet users have had some personal data compromised or stolen from them
  • 21% have had their social accounts or email accounts hacked or infested by malware or virus
  • 50% of users have expressed a concern about the amount of personal information available online

So what should you do?  Stop panicking.  Nobody is looking to gain access to your Puzzle Pirates account to wreck havoc.  There are a ton of other things to worry about, such as ensuring that you stop sharing as much information online as you have been.

The stuff you post on Facebook?  That’s much more helpful to identify thieves than that other stuff.  Something to think about…