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What is Heartbleed and Why Should You Care?

Heartbleed is the name of a security flaw discovered in a widely-used encryption technology called OpenSSL.  This flaw exposes usernames and passwords that are supposed to be private and secure.  It is estimated that nearly 20% of secure web servers certified by trusted authorities use OpenSSL.

SSL stands for Secure Socket Layer, a form of encryption that protects your private information when using the web.  This is what is used to protect you when you log in to your banking website, purchase things online, etc.