Heartbleed Bug Update: Community Response on SMBNation.com

Written By: Heather L

Source: http://www.smbnation.com/content/news/entry/heartbleed-bug-update-community-response

As many of you remember, we covered the Heartbleed Bug news break last week. This latest security flaw has grabbed the attention of IT Professionals and SMB end users alike due to its attack on the OpenSSL standard, and the fact that it took so long to uncover. We have recently received two responses from our community with tips for ensuring safety in the wake of this bug.

To start, long-time SMB Nation Community member, Carl Mazzanti, CEO, eMazzanti Technologies, sent over an e-mail with information on how they are keeping their eCare customers safe:

“For our eCare Network Management customers’ plans and processes were quickly implemented to rectify this vulnerability as it began to hit the message boards. A “Fixed OpenSSL” software update has been released and deployed throughout our customer environments. Additionally, our partners at LogMeIn and WatchGuard have stepped up efforts to address specific concerns. For example, LogMeIn has released a new version of its software, and WatchGuard has informed us that, although they are unaware of ANY breaches related to Heartbleed, they have released an update with critical patches on their firewalls to continue to prevent any future potential exposure. Both of these upgrades have been rolled out on appliances free of charge to our eCare customer base.”

Carl took some time out of his busy schedule today to speak with me about his experiences with the Heartbleed bug as it relates to his clients. In fact, he let me know that he was recently speaking to one of the Principals of a law firm client, who said that his computer stopped working, and that he thought he may have the virus. Carl then said something profound about this particular bug: “There are no real symptoms to this bug. It just listens and collects your information,” Carl says. “This is the first real security item in a long time.”

Our second response came from Presstacular, who reached out to us with tips on drafting an e-mail to send to end-users. In particular, the e-mail should have the following four points: