YSU makes fixes in the wake of discovery of the Heartbleed bug

YOUNGSTOWN

Youngstown State University technology professionals are in the process of making fixes in the wake of discovery of the Heartbleed bug.

Heartbleed is an error that allows information to be gathered from a server while the user is communicating with affected Open SSL, or Secure Sockets Layer, sites. SSL is the technology that connects a server and a browser via an encrypted link.

“We’re in the process of assessing all of our servers to determine if they’re vulnerable and patching them,” said Lloyd Painter, associate director of media and academic computing at YSU.

Patching means updating to a newer version that doesn’t have the vulnerability.

It’s a long process.

“It’s taking a long time to get through all the servers,” Painter said. “We’re doing the servers at higher risk first.”

Higher risk is based on the types of information typically entered using those servers.

The fix itself isn’t expensive, but the work involved is expensive in terms of manpower.