THREAT ONE: HEARTBLEED COMPUTER BUG

Just heard about this one last night on NPR. Since we all use computers or have someone to do it for us I thought you may like to know.

This is one that I just found out about and affects a whole lot of us, actually all. Basically we will need to reset our passwords to any site that uses SSL encryption, but only after they have installed a patch to the heart bleed bug.
Here is the article I read:
Heartbleed bug: Check which sites have been patched - CNET

Also more information is available: Heartbleed Bug
The Heartbleed Bug is a serious vulnerability in the popular OpenSSL cryptographic software library.

Well I am not looking forward to changing all my passwords but the time has come that is for certain.
Seems like just yesterday I was doing this due to a lost thumbdrive that held my Password Program on it... lol

THREAT TWO: Microsoft is no longer supporting Microsoft XP

Some articles to read on the subject are:
From one of my favorite tech sources CNET, Microsoft to Windows XP users: The jig is up - CNET , more this one from MashUp doesn't look so bad, Windows XP Isn't Safe to Use Anymore. Here's What to Do Next. and lastly from Expert Views When Windows XP support ends, this is how you secure your PC and save all updates | Expert Reviews

What I got from the three articles is that we should upgrade XP now if we have not already. I was able to install the last fixes yesterday, so I think Microsoft is making the fixes available, just not making more. Since some large corporations and government are looking to keep running XP for a while, there just may be some other avenues to get our fixes in the future, but at present I am planning on migrating XP to either Win 7 or Ubuntu for my few XP platforms as none of them are trading platforms. Well not trading platforms anymore... WOW.