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Fix for Heartbleed bug may slow internet to a crawl

Most sites have closed the back door to hackers with a patch, but it will make browsers sluggish

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The heartache from the Heartbleed internet flaw is not over, and some experts say the fix may lead to more online disruption and confusion.

The good news is that most sites deemed vulnerable have patched their systems or are in the process of doing so.

The bad news is that web browsers might be overloaded by the overhaul of security certificates, leading to error messages and impacting web performance, said Johannes Ullrich of the SANS Internet Storm Centre.

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"A good percentage of the websites are patched," Ullrich said on Tuesday.

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The patches enable the web operators to obtain new security certificates that demonstrate they can be trusted by browsers.

But Ullrich noted that for each patch, web browsers must update their list of "untrusted" certificates or "keys" that would be rejected.

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