BY UDEMY.COM

As we encounter the limitless capabilities of the smartphones that continue to spend increasingly more time in our hands than our pockets, it is certain that consumers are not ignoring the value of mobile technology. Additionally, as mobile business applications increase in number and quality, the purpose of smartphones remains evidently dynamic. It is an anomaly why only about half of small and medium-sized businesses have truly began implementing the versatility of mobile technology into their model. Nonetheless, there is an upward trend in the number of businesses that are making this important stride, and it is certainly not too late for small businesses to become leaders in mobile technology utilization and integration. This is especially true given that new mobile solutions are continually developing therefore allowing some businesses to become the first to utilize a particular element of this technology.

The nationally publicized security disaster of April 2014 known as the "Heartbleed" bug has certainly drawn attention to the developing need to prioritize security when dealing with information systems. A single, flawed line of code written into an extension of the widely used web encryption software called OpenSSL granted access to stored private and personal data to those who sought to illegally obtain it. While the software was built to maintain periodic open connections between servers in order to regulate operation, the mentioned line of code inadvertently allowed 64 kilobytes of information to be accessed by a web attacker when an open connection was established. Furthermore, given that the process was periodic, an individual extracting information illegally could accumulate valuable data over time by continuously exploiting each open connection. As a consequence, hackers were able to acquire usernames, passwords, credit card information, and each server’s private digital key, which made classified internal documents available to unauthorized parties. Although this vulnerability was ultimately patched, the event made an example of the problems that arise when software is not monitored for exploitable weaknesses.

February 26, 2015 shall go down in history as a landmark event for the preservation of freedom on the internet.  Or that's the hope, at least.