Heartbleed Bug Exposed China’s Cyber Vulnerability

Global Business

While the Internet has changed the rhythm of people’s lives in recent years, issues concerning cyber security are also increasing. A new cyber security bug discovered last week, nicknamed Heart-Bleed, has been described as the greatest threat to ever surface on the internet. Major portal websites in China have been implementing fixes, but no one knows how the extent of the damage. This latest menace has highlighted the need for China to upgrade its cyber security.

Heartbleed Bug Exposed China’s Cyber Vulnerability

While the Internet has changed the rhythm of people's lives in recent years, issues concerning cyber security are also increasing. Tang Bo has the story


Heart Bleed is an internet security flaw in OpenSSL, an encryption technology designed to protect online accounts for emails, instant messaging and e-commerce. The bug can be used by hackers to decrypt secret online communications, and put millions of passwords, credit card numbers, and other personal information at risk.

Revealed last week, it has allegedly been around the Internet for around two years. And there isn’t anything users can do until affected websites implement a fix. The problem affects only the variant of OpenSSL. But unfortunately that happens to be one of the most common on the Internet. Leading Internet companies in China have taken steps to fix it. But it’s unclear whether any information has been stolen.

Heart Bleed is just one of the major cyber security threats that China is facing. On the same day the flaw was found, Microsoft retired its Windows XP operating system making millions of internet users in China easy prey for hackers. As of last year, there are more than 600 million internet users in China, and 500 million people are surfing the web on their mobile phones. So, a single cyber breakdown could affect millions of people. Experts say it’s important to improve security awareness so that people can proactively identify new security threats.

Allan Friedman, visiting Scholar at the Cyber Security Policy Research Institute at George Washington University and author of “Cybersecurity and Cyberwar: What Everyone Needs to Know”, weighs in on heartbleed security flaw.

Allan Friedman on Who Runs the Internet

Allan Friedman, visiting Scholar at the Cyber Security Policy Research Institute at George Washington University and author of "Cybersecurity and Cyberwar: What Everyone Needs to Know , weighs in on heartbleed security flaw

David Chartier,the CEO of Codenomican, which is the company that originally found the bug, also joined CCTV’s discussion.

Interview with David Chartier on heartbleed

David Chartier,the CEO of Codenomican, which is the company that originally found the heartbleed bug, also joined CCTV’s discussion.