FortisBC customers not affected by Heartbleed bug

Apr 16, 2014

SURREY, BC – Customers may have heard about a critical security vulnerability called Heartbleed that has recently been discovered. This bug does not affect FortisBC’s website and online portals.

FortisBC does not use Open Secure Socket Layer (Open SSL) technology that is vulnerable to the Heartbleed bug. As a result, FortisBC customers’ passwords and information is secure.

For more information on the steps FortisBC takes to protect customer privacy, see our privacy policy.

The Heartbleed bug has highlighted just how important it is to protect personal information online.

Whether you are online banking, shopping or filing your income tax, here are some tips to help protect your information:

• Regularly change your passwords and to use different passwords for different accounts to avoid the risk of identity theft.
• Use strong passwords. A strong password contains upper and lowercase letters, numbers and special characters, and is at least seven characters long.
• Don’t click on any suspicious links. Protect yourself by going directly to your vendor’s trusted site and making any changes from there.
• Be careful when using public Wi-Fi. Personal VPN software is available to make public Wi-Fi more secure; however, if you are accessing sites that have the Heartbleed vulnerability, this may not protect you.
• Keep your computer up to date with the latest patches and updates. New updates and patches are typically developed in response to flaws found in operating systems or other programs.