The Heartbleed bug, what you need to know and do NOW

I am sure by now you have heard about the Heartbleed bug.  Let me first reassure you that none of the technologies that Biz Books Cloud LLC uses to serve our clients was affected by the bug.  These include all Intuit and QuickBooks products, AccountEdge, Xero, Wave, iCloud, Concur, and Smart Vault.  Your data with us is secure.

However, you should also know that if you use the same password for both affected and unaffected sites, then they can both be compromised.  Current recommendations are that you should wait for affected sites to update their software and then go there and change your password immediately.  That means that in the meantime you should also change your password on unaffected sites that share common passwords with those.  I know this is complicated, and our bottom-line recommendation has always been that you should use a long, random, and unique password on EVERY site you connect to.  I recommend LastPass to make this process as painless as possible.  Here is their link: https://lastpass.com/ .  You can use it on all your computers and devices (pay the $12 per year for your iOS and Android devices!).  If you need help implementing this, please contact us for help.  This is URGENT.

 

Here is a short list of common sites that were affected and have been patched.  You should change ALL passwords on these sites immediately!

  •         Facebook
  •        Google
  •        Gmail
  •        Yahoo
  •        Instagram
  •        Twitter (they say they were unaffected, but they also patched their software!)
  •        Pinterest
  •        Flickr
  •        Netflix
  •        YouTube
  •        Box.com
  •        DropBox

Of note, the following password manager sites were NOT affected

  •         LastPass
  •        1Password
  •        Dashlane

If you have questions about any other sites you use, let us know and we will look into them for you.

Here also is a short list of other common sites that were NOT affected:

  • Apple
  • Microsoft
  • Outlook.com
  • Hotmail.com
  • LinkedIn
  • Amazon
  • AOL
  • eBay
  • PayPal
  • Hulu
  • Most banks, including Bank of America, Capital One, Citibank, Chase, TD Bank, US Bank, and Wells Fargo (but check yours if not listed)

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