Main Findings
The Heartbleed security flaw on one of the most widely used “secure socket” encryption programs on the internet had an impact on a notable share of internet users, 1 according to a new survey by the Pew Research Center:
- 39% of internet users say that after they learned of the online security problems they took steps to protect their online accounts by doing such things as changing passwords or canceling accounts.
- 29% of internet users believe their personal information was put at risk because of the Heartbleed bug.
- 6% of internet users say they believe their personal information was stolen.
As a news story, the revelations about Heartbleed drew the attention of a notable segment of adults. Some 60% of adults (and 64% of internet users) said they had heard about the bug. Some 19% of adults said they had heard “a lot” about it and 41% said they had heard “a little” about it.
By comparison, though, the Heartbleed story drew much less intensity and scope of attention than other big news stories. In this same survey, 46% of respondents said they had heard “a lot” about tensions between Russia and Ukraine and 34% said they had heard “a little.”
And last June, when Edward Snowden leaked details of the National Security Agency surveillance programs collecting phone and email records of Americans, 51% of adults said they had heard “a lot” about the story and another 35% said they had heard “a little.”
Overall, internet users generally have mixed and middling views about the security of their personal information online: About half (46%) say they think their information is “somewhat secure.” Some 23% believe their information is “very secure,” and 26% say it is “not too secure” or “not at all secure.”
About this survey
These findings come from a survey of 1,501 American adults (ages 18+) conducted between April 23-27 on landline and cell phones. The survey was administered in English and Spanish. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.9 percentage points for the overall sample and 3.1 percentage points for the 1,303 internet users in the sample. The questions about Heartbleed’s impact were asked of the 897 respondents who were internet users and who had heard about the security flaw. The margin of error for those results is plus or minus 3.8 percentage points.
Heartbleed arises
The revelations about the Heartbleed bug in the OpenSSL program were a major story in early April because of the nature of the flaw (it allowed bad actors to discover supposedly secure encrypted information) and the potential size of the affected population. Perhaps 500,000 or more websites use OpenSSL to allow their visitors to have supposedly secure interactions. Such internet behemoths as Facebook, Yahoo, Google, YouTube, and Wikipedia were affected.
Moreover, the flaw went undetected for more than two years. The open-source nature of the OpenSSL program meant that it was available for free to the companies that wanted an easy–and respected—way to allow users of their sites to have encrypted interactions with the sites.
It also meant that unpaid, volunteer coders were the primary designers of the software. Few of the firms actually using the code on their websites provided financial support for its development. Ironically, the open-source nature of OpenSSL meant that few people had financial incentive to look for flaws and fix problems.
There was consensus in the internet security community that the safest user response after announcement of the problem was to first check whether a particular website was employing repaired versions of OpenSSL. Several testing sites were created so that people could stick in a Web address to see if a site still used the problem software. Experts also suggested that people change their passwords or even cancel accounts if they felt the accounts were vulnerable.
Who was aware of Heartbleed
This survey finds that a sizable share of the public was aware of the problem: 60% of the public had heard at least a little about Heartbleed, including 64% of internet users had. Some 19% of adults said they had heard “a lot” about Heartbleed and another 41% said they had heard “a little.”
The most noteworthy traits of those who had heard about the security problem on the internet was that they were likely to be relatively well educated and higher income Americans: 77% of those with college educations were aware of Heartbleed, along with 75% of those living in households earning $75,000 or more.
As a news story, Heartbleed was not nearly as prominent in public awareness as some other recent stories. In this survey, we also asked if people had heard of the tensions between Russia and Ukraine and 46% of respondents said they had heard “a lot” and another 34% said they had heard “a little.”
In previous surveys about people’s awareness of news stories, Pew Research has found a number of news events that have gained much more public attention than Heartbleed. For instance:
- 88% of Americans said they had heard “a lot” about the Newtown, Connecticut shootings in December 2012.
- 60% of Americans said they had heard “a lot” about Pope Benedict’s announcement he would step down from the papacy in February 2013.
- 42% of Americans said they had heard “a lot” about Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney’s of Rep. Paul Ryan to be his running mate in August 2012.
The Heartbleed story registered roughly the same level of public awareness as the U.S.-Iran negotiations and agreement to allow monitoring of Iran’s nuclear program (in November and December 2013) and Catholic Bishops in the U.S. protesting Obama Administration policies they believe restricted religious liberty (July 2012).
Who felt vulnerable
After establishing in our survey who was aware of Heartbleed, we then asked the 64% of internet users those who had heard of the bug a series questions about how vulnerable they felt. In other words, the 36% of internet users 2 who had not heard of Heartbleed were not asked the follow-up questions about the security bug’s impact on users.
Some 29% of all internet users said they believed their online information was put at risk by Heartbleed. That amounts to 45% of the internet users who had heard of Heartbleed who said they felt vulnerable.
Those who are relatively upscale were more likely to feel their information was put at risk: 38% of online Americans with college or graduate degrees said they thought their information was put at risk, compared with 23% of internet users with a high school diploma or less. Among other reasons, this likely happened because those with higher education were also more likely to have heard a lot about Heartbleed.
Similarly, internet users in higher income households were more likely than those in lower-income households to fear that Heartbleed put their information at risk: 34% of the internet users living in households earning $75,000 or more said the bug put their information at risk, compared with 25% of the internet users living in households earning less than $30,000.
Some 6% of internet users said they felt their information had actually been stolen because of Heartbleed. There was no notable variance in this figure when it came to different demographic groups.
Who took precautionary steps in response to Heartbleed
Some 39% of internet users say they changed their password or closed an account in response to the revelations about Heartbleed. This amounts to 61% of the internet users who had heard of Heartbleed.
Again, those with higher levels of education were the most likely to have taken such steps: 48% of the internet users with college educations changed their password or deleted an account, compared with 31% of the internet users with high school educations or less and 40% of those who attended at least some college.
And 46% of the internet users in households earning $75,000 or more had changed their passwords or deleted an account, compared with 33% of the online Americans living in households earning less than $30,000.
Who feels secure or insecure
Despite the latest security issues involving the internet, almost seven-in-ten internet users (69%) think that their online accounts and private information are generally secure. Some 23% believe that their accounts are “very secure,” while another 46% say their accounts are “somewhat” secure.
Others are less confident. One-in-four internet users (26%) think their online accounts are not secure, including 13% who say that they are “not too secure” and another 13% that think they are “not at all secure.”
African-Americans who use the internet are more likely than others to feel confident about the security of their accounts and online Hispanics are the most likely not to feel confident. Whites who use the internet fall in the middle:
Some 84% of African-American internet users say their online accounts and private information are “very” or “somewhat” secure, the highest percentage of any racial group.
On the opposite end, Hispanics are the most likely to say their online interests are “not too” or “not at all” secure, with 39% saying so.
White users are more likely than Hispanics to feel secure, but also more likely than African-Americans to feel insecure.
