Heartbleed One Year Later: Has Anything Changed?

darthcamaro writes: It was on April 7, 2014 that the CVE-2014-0160 vulnerability titled "TLS heartbeat read overrun" in OpenSSL was first publicly disclosed — but to many its a bug known simply as Heartbleed. A new report from certificate vendor Venafi claims that 76% of organizations are still at risk, though it's a statistic that is contested by other vendors as well as other statistics. Qualys' SSL Pulse claims that only 0.3 percent of sites are still at risk. Whatever the risk is today, the bottom line is that Heartbleed did change the security conversation — but did it change it for the better or the worse? A related article explores how Heartbleed could have been found earlier.

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The Little Logo That Could

[TheRealHocusLocus]

Heartbleed was The Little Logo That Could. Like the peace sign of the 60s, the happy face of the 70s. It broke a decades-long trend of overzealous graphic design to portray security vulnerabilities.

For years! Over-matted and often disingenuously constructed stock photo montages of so-called 'security', 'hacker' or 'cybercrime' objects on highly saturated over-stylized texture backgrounds. You know what I mean: the kind of schlock that looks great on the screen but it is a design train wreck if you attempt to drop it onto a business card or T-shirt. Network news teasers and splashes beyond count. Just what is that supposed to mean anyway? A padlock on a bit-tornado? A Hamburgler robber mask on a credit card? A dagger spewing colorful Puff the Magic Dragon Bit Barf? Fingers on a keyboard (hacker fingers!!)?

Simplicity and scalability is power in logo design. A great logo must be simple enough to stencil, to reproduce. In your face elegant, coat and tails casual. Equally at home atop a skyscraper or fresh from a spray can in the 'Hood. Codenomicon really outdid themselves on this one, a touch of Art Deco and a ton of tasteful restraint. All lines are either gracefully curved or straight and vertical. It does not matter how you affix a Heartbleed logo, it will command the attention without silly tricks. Its topological genus of one is a master stroke of genius, and preserves its visual identity even if hastily drawn.

The Heartbleed logo is the first logo designed in almost 50 years that has no need for a drop shadow.
There can be no higher praise.