Ohhh, we like 3D printers. We're working with the local Protospace to fund-raise for a Makerbot. I want to see one of these Line Follower chassis (especially as some of the parts look particularly familiar!). LOVE open source hardware!
Heartbleed & Solarbotics
Solar botics
April 10, 2014
As I imagine most of you out there have heard by now, there's a pretty serious vulnerability in the OpenSSL that was announced on April 7th called CVE-2014-0160, better known as Heartbleed. For those of you wondering what the heck this "Heartbleed" thing is, awhile back OpenSSL added a "heartbeat" feature which allowed servers and computers with a secure connection to "ping" each other regularly, in order to keep the connection open. The problem comes from a bug in OpenSSL which lets a computer without the secure connection to still ping this way, and that connection could be exploited to include up to 64K chunks from the server's RAM, which unfortunately can include recently decrypted usernames, passwords, etc.
What Is Solarbotics Doing About it?
We've already taken steps to patch this hole on our own servers, and have reissued our EV SSL certificate (if you take a peek at the cert, you'll notice the validation date has been bumped up to 4/9/2014) which has already been installed. We've also cleared all existing sessions on the server as those were at risk as well. The unfortunate side effect of that is that anyone who had been building a cart without logging in will need to do so again.
What Should You Be Doing About it?
You should be giving strong consideration to resetting & updating all your passwords (yes seriously), particularly for the important things in your life like email, banking, facebook/twitter/reddit etc. This vulnerability was announced Monday, and if someone happened to pick up your login credentials before this was patched on one of the sites you visit, the attackers could still have your login credentials. We recommend opting for two-factor verification where ever possible. Of course, not using the same password for everything becomes an important part as well and for those of you worried about keeping track, we're big fans of Keepass here at Solarbotics.
MORE POSTS
Bye Becky - Welcome Robin!
We're sorry to see Becky go off to work with her husband on their own endevours, but that's ok; we have Robin now - a most worthy replacement. Bye Becky - we'll miss you! Come back sometime and say hi to Robin, ok?
Solarbotics Kits on Instructables
Instructables is an ever-expanding documentation platform for sharing DIY projects of all kinds, from pancakes to electronics to making anything fly. Since 2005 when it became what it is now, Instructables grew from hundreds to more than a hundred thousand projects. It's a great community of fellow makers from around the world fueled by curiosity […]
Solarbotics' Grove Academic Education Bu...
Last summer during a Solarbotics Robotics for Educators session, one of the teachers noted something about many of the mainstream robotics and electronics learning platforms commonly used in classrooms. He said that those platforms suffered from the Black Box Effect. This effect was where the “black boxes,” the controllers, were plugged into the computer and […]
Solarbotics has been operating for more than 25 years, bringing electronics know-how and supplies to both the electronics professional and hobbyist. We'll be happy to help you too!
Solarbotics, Ltd. is not responsible for misprints or errors on product prices or information. For more information, please see our Terms and Conditions.
Warning: This product contains chemicals known to the State of California to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm.
Please visit www.P65Warnings.ca.gov for more information. This item was manufactured prior to August 31, 2018.