Heartbleed Bug: Passwords to Change

This week an email security bulletin from Hofstra University Information Technology focused on the "Heartbleed" bug, a serious bug in the Open SSL software used to secure many popular sites including social media, online banking, email, and health care services with encrypted personal information.  Changing account passwords is a common suggestion for trying to avoid adverse effects of Heartbleed, but it can be time-consuming without having some priorities.  Mashable's article, "The Heartbleed Hit List: The Passwords You Need to Change Right Now," may be helpful in deciding which passwords to concentrate on immediately.  The list covers many prominent social networks, email providers, banks, stores, and commercial and government websites, with advice and comments based upon and made by the providers themselves.  It is also being updated with new information.  You also may want to check out LastPass's Heartbleed checker.

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Cyber Crime Resources

Anyone interested in internet law, including computer crime, should be aware of several online resources for collecting, compiling, and utilizing information on cyber crime complaints. The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), a partnership between the FBI the National White Collar Crime Center, has logged over two million consumer complaints of internet fraud, scams, identity theft, and other crimes on its web site since it began operations in 2000. In the past decade, it has referred over 750,000 of these complaints to law enforcement agencies around the world. The IC3 also uses the complaints to track emerging trends in cyber crime and to educate the public through its consumer education website, LooksToGoodToBeTrue.com. A good starting place for understanding the parameters and consumer impact of internet crime is the 2009 Internet Crime Report, a statistical overview of the current shape of cyber crime based on complaints received and processed last year by the IC3.
Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat