Heartbleed in a chart

What is Heartbleed? If you don't know, find out now

You’ve probably heard about Heartbleed. You’ve probably been told that, as far as security vulnerabilities go on the Internet, it’s pretty damned scary.  If you do not know, then the video is definitely worth taking a peek at. 

But what is Heartbleed? How does it work? Why is it something that you should care about? This Khan Academy-style* video tries to break it all down.

Made by Zulfikar Ramzan, MIT Ph.D. and CTO of cloud security firm Elastica, this video does a great job of explaining the bug at a pretty high level. Its still got a whole lot of acronyms and jargon thrown into the mix (so don’t expect an Explain-Like-I’m-Five explanation here), but it does a good job of explaining the bug’s ins and outs in a way that more people should be able to grasp.

At least IE6 is officially dead now!

After the release of Windows XP in 2001 and for a few years that followed, Internet Explorer 6 was the biggest, most important browser in the world. And for longer, it has been the buggy browser that's overstayed its welcome. Microsoft announced it would support IE6 through April of this year back in 2009, and today (along with XP and Office 2003) is the last day Microsoft will provide updates. Unless you're an old user who couldn't care less or are somehow nostalgic for a broken web, it's finally time to say goodbye.

Internet Explorer 6 is, by now, a bad joke

IE6 is almost universally reviled, and for good reason. Microsoft got cocky in the mid-aughts after beating down Netscape Navigator; because Internet Explorer overall held more than 90 percent of the market, it took a solid five years before IE7 debuted. Meanwhile, security issues slipped through massive cracks, with fixes coming in few and far between. (Nevermind the fact that IE6 was never fully standards compliant.) It got so bad that full-blown campaigns were launched calling for its death. User antipathy contributed directly to browsers like Firefox and Chrome being able to wrest users away from IE in general, and you can generally see a distrust for Microsoft's actually good browsers to this day. Even Redmond got in on the joke.

The XP Apocalypse is upon us

Well, maybe not for you, but the calls are coming in already from those who somehow escaped the message that XP was dying.  Wish me luck everyone!

The time has come to say goodbye. On April 8, Microsoft will officially end support for its aging operating system, Windows XP.

For the tech-savvy, this is a non-issue. You've said goodbye to XP, which first launched in 2001, and embraced a more modern OS, like Windows 7 or Windows 8. But March data from Net Applications showed that XP is still the second most popular operating system around the globe, with 27.69 percent of the market. So there are more than a few devices out there that need an upgrade—and fast.

Microsoft has been pleading with customers to upgrade to a new OS for years. While that might seem like a marketing ploy to get you to buy Redmond's latest offering, there are a few reasons why you might want to take the company's advice.

Why should I upgrade? First and foremost, this is a security issue. Windows XP-based machines will still work after tomorrow, but Microsoft will no longer roll out security updates for the OS. That means your computer will be more susceptible to hackers and other scammers, who could exploit bugs that Microsoft is no longer fixing to gain access to your machine and steal your personal information.

Are there any exceptions? Amidst some backlash, Microsoft in February officially extended Microsoft Security Essentials updates for Windows XP users through July 2015. "For enterprise customers, this applies to System Center Endpoint Protection, Forefront Client Security, Forefront Endpoint Protection and Windows Intune running on Windows XP," Microsoft said. "For consumers, this applies to Microsoft Security Essentials." Still, Redmond cautioned that anti-malware solutions on outdated operating systems are limited. Some anti-virus providers will extend support for XP users, but not all.

Is this really a huge deal or Y2K-level dramatics? It seems like news of a new data breach or computer scam makes news every day; do you really want to put yourself at risk because you like XP, or you just don't want to bother with an upgrade? According to a recent report from Ondrej Vlcek, Avast's chief operations officer, Windows XP users' systems will be "six times" more likely to come under attack by third parties than those running Windows 7.

So, how do I make the switch? Microsoft has an online tutorial that will help you upgrade from Windows XP to Windows 7. Make sure you back up all your files, as the update will not preserve your programs, files, or settings.

Can I upgrade to Windows 8? It's not impossible, but "Windows 8.1 isn't designed for installation on PCs running Windows Vista or Windows XP," Microsoft warns. If you're eyeing Windows 8, your best bet is probably to buy a new machine. If cost is an issue, check out PCMag's roundup of The 10 Best Budget Laptops, most of which run Windows 8.

What's so great about Windows 7 or Windows 8? Besides the security protection, Windows 7 is two steps ahead of XP (let's just forget about Vista, shall we?) so it comes with some bells and whistles that most PC users will want to take advantage of. For more, check out Windows 7: The Top 10 Hidden Features as well as 21 Ways to Customize Windows 7, and our full review of Windows 7.

Microsoft, of course, would much prefer that you embrace its latest operating system, Windows 8. It has been slow to pick up market share (just over 11 percent in February) thanks to the touch-centric UI, but on April 8, Microsoft will roll out Windows 8.1 Update, an operating system revamp that might make Windows 7 fans more comfortable making the switch to Windows 8. For more, check out 8 Things You Need to Know About Windows 8.1 Update and our full review.

How to scam anyone very easily...Android style

There are many ways an Android app in Google Play can scam users, such as posing as a popular game or an innocent looking wallpaper app to push ads or malware. But a really brazen way to fool users is to charge actual money for the privilege of getting scammed.

That's apparently what happened with a security app called Virus Shield that promised one-tap security protection. The problem with Security Shield, as first reported by Android Police, is that it didn't actually protect anything.

Instead, all you got after installing the app was a button that changed from an "X" to a check mark...and that's it. No security scanning of app downloads, no active website scanning, no antivirus signatures, nothing.

More than 10,000 people paid $4 for the privilege of downloading the app before it was pulled. So many people downloaded it, in fact, that Virus Shield rose to number one overall in Google Play's list of new top paid apps, and number three in the overall top paid apps chart.

Virus Shield's page in Google Play (pulled from Google's search cache).

Virus Shield's apparent scam shows, once again, that with Google's relatively open approach to app submission users must be on guard against scam apps. Google may catch the con artists eventually, but in the meantime people end up downloading malware, scamware, and other problematic bits of code.

Luckily, Virus Shield's biggest offense was that it cost money. But it could have been worse if the app also tried pilfering user data or downloaded malware onto a user's handset.

Cheapest Online Storage you will ever find... for now - What's New

Under What's New, I have an article on your cheapest online solution today.  Check out Amazon's Glacier.  A dirt cheap way to back up online.  It is slow, but at the price, it's worth it.  Check it out on your left under what's new!