Heartbleed Bug Indicates Need For Robust Risk Management Solutions
Financial security needs to be upheld as technology enables businesses and consumers to complete more transactions online. But it seems that all of the security checks currently in use still allowed a massive bug to render much of the internet vulnerable to a security flaw called “Heartbleed.”
Because of the widespread nature of this flaw, experts working for a company called Codenomicon believe that servers around the world have been affected.
This latest incident is a good reminder that financial institutions need to have robust risk management solutions in place, both for ensuring that borrowers are creditworthy and for keeping customers’ data secure.
The Associated Press reports that Heartbleed corresponds to a major loophole in internet access through which criminals would theoretically be able to access the information of participants and obtain memory from a system, including important credit card and banking information, without any sign of intrusion.
The gap in security involves one of the most commonly used means of encryption in the internet, and financial institutions should be on high alert.
Unfortunately, there seems to be little to be done about the bug at the moment, although Codenomicon did launch the recovery site Heartbleed.com to try and counter the effects of the bug.
That site includes an FAQ about Heartbleed, which details the kinds of highly sensitive data that could be potentially seen by intruders. This “may be personal or financial details, private communication such as emails or instant messages, documents or anything seen worth protecting by encryption,” the site says. “Only owners of the services will be able to estimate the likelihood what has been leaked and they should notify their users accordingly.”
In light of the risks posed by cyber crime, your company may need to seek out a credit application software provider that can help you focus on security.
