Hey everyone, We’re going over the log 4j issue in this article at a pretty high level.
Let’s get started.
To give you an idea of what’s going on… This is probably one of the biggest, if not the biggest, security exploits we have ever seen.
For starters here, log4j is not a virus; it’s a simple data logging tool that’s used in a ton of different software out there.
It’s affecting corporations, it’s affecting individual users, it’s affecting pretty much everybody, so if you’re a Windows user, Linux user, or apple user, including iOS you are affected by the security vulnerability.
If you’re strictly on android, We think you’re safe.
Basically, what’s happening here is that there’s a security vulnerability within log2j. Hackers are able to bypass any sort of restrictions and gain access to a computer system without using a password. Once they’re into the computer systems, hackers can do things like try to install malicious software or maybe spy on you or steal information and data, including passwords.
This security vulnerability was found out on November 24th but wasn’t really publicized until a few days ago, and that’s when attacks really started to ramp up.
Fortunately, here log4j has been updated to get rid of the security risk as of version 2.15. The security risk in log4j is no longer present, and log4j is currently at version 2.16.
However, this is the big unfortunate news, a lot of software doesn’t use the current version of log4j, so pretty much any single piece of software out there using log4j previous to version 2.15 is still at risk.
So at this point in time, you might be asking what we can do to protect ourselves against the log4j security exploits, and the answer here is not really a lot.
You can try changing your passwords frequently and using strong passwords. You can try using two-factor authentication, and you can also try using a VPN, but none of these methods will protect you 100%.
We’re all at the mercy of companies updating their software. So at the end of the day here, the best practice is to update the software in your computer.
If you’re using a program and you see an update for it, by all means, update it. It’s probably that security fix to fix the log4j security vulnerability.
Hope this article was helpful. Do share this article on your social media handles to let people know about this.