‘Heartbleed’ Hole Gives Millions Heartache Online

 
For two years, your online information—from Facebook to bank accounts—has been exposed.

Few knew about this until the “Heartbleed” security flaw was disclosed.

The Heartbleed Internet security flaw discovered this week continues to affect thousands of websites, and even some Android phones, home wireless routers and embedded devices. It’s likely that this mess won’t be cleaned up for quite a while.

The virus is affecting some (but not all) secure Web, email, instant-messaging and mobile-app communications.

Hackers could crack email systems, security firewalls and possibly mobile phones through the “Heartbleed” computer bug, according to security experts who warned on Thursday that the risks extended beyond just Internet Web servers.