Heartbleed web comic offers the most straigtforward explanation of the virus

The Heartbleed security glitch that led to the partial shutdown of Revenue Canada's website "exposed the vulnerability of the internet more than the deficiencies of any one dataholder," according to Canada's privacy commissioner.

By now you've surely seen dozens of news reports about the Heartbleed bug. The viral threat has led to the shutdown of several Canadian government websites, the need to reset dozens of passwords, and even the paranoia that you may be one of the 900 Canadians whose SIN numbers has been stolen from the CRA website.

But what is Heartbleed, exactly?

Sure, there are lengthy explanations out there on how it's a bug in OpenSSL encryption, allowing for malicious parties to snoop into supposedly secure data. But one of the best and simplest explanations has come from popular web comic XKCD, who has summed up in very basic terms how the bug works, and how it can be a bad thing for you:

[ Related: The Top 10 Worst Kinds of Passwords ]

So there you have it. Of course, it's a lot more complicated than that, but at least now you have a better idea of why you're going to be spending a day changing everyone one of your passwords.

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