Heartbleed and its Effects on Online Business

April 11, 2026 GJB723, An anti-Heartbleed insignia.

By Patrick Schmidt

April 22, 2026

In today’s world many people and businesses rely on the Internet to either purchase or offer services to others both near and far. Over the past ten years the Internet has become the new face of modern commercial transactions, which has both positive and negative ramifications. With the detection of a new piece of spyware, known as Heartbleed, the international internet-security community and internet-based commercial centers were taken aback by the complexity and intellectual prowess of the hackers behind its design.

Researchers at Codenomicon discovered the bug in early April 2014. The bug takes advantage of the security software known as OpenSSL, an open-source encryption program that is used by both public and private sectors to secure data transmitted over internet connections. This data can be very important, ranging from credit card numbers to tax information. OpenSSL works by sending unique signals between host and client computers to ensure that the connection is secure and remains intact. Heartbleed operates by replicating a host signal, thereby allowing the client computer to divulge all of the sensitive information stored in the memory of the computer. After capturing this data, a hacker not only has all of the sensitive information, but also the key to decipher other secure connections. Worst of all, this process can all take place without any record in a computer’s log, so there is no way to determine if one has been hacked.

After discovering the bug, many major companies raced to determine which versions of OpenSSL in operation were vulnerable to the bug. The major companies who could fix their software quickly applied patches, changed encryption keys, and asked customers to choose new passwords. That series of actions would re-guarantee the security of everyone’s information. However, for smaller companies this process has taken a longer period of time and has left clients’ information exposed to hackers for an extended period.

In the wake of Heartbleed, a number of questions remain. First of all, is there a possibility that the bug’s power was actually blown out of proportion? The scare also raises questions about the responsibility of companies who store customer’s sensitive personal information. To what extent are these companies legally responsible when a security flaw is found in proven security software? Regardless, internet-based commercial transactions are expected to amount to over $1.5 trillion dollars in 2014. While internet shopping is quite attractive to the general public, the increase in internet commerce also makes for an attractive target for hackers looking to profit from other’s purchases and possibly exposed personal information. In order to protect this share of the market, internet-security companies and private business alike will need to continue to work to remain one step ahead the hacking community.