Thrifty Nickel tech team (not actual photo)

Heartbleed is the nickname for an internet security bug that began receiving public attention last week. The details are pretty involved, but in a nutshell there was a potential vulnerability found in OpenSSL encryption, which is currently used by about two-thirds of all sites on the internet.

The bug is serious business. Fortunately, our tech team (left) is serious about security, too. Our systems were patched and upgraded to new certificates before even the giant corporate sites had a chance to react.

We’re also proud to be one of the growing number of secure sites utilizing something known as “perfect forward secrecy” — a way of preventing unforeseen future vulnerabilities from decrypting past transactions. You’ll hear more about it in the future as more and more sites step up to the plate to protect their customers.

Just keeping our little corner of Texas as safe as we can!