Heartbleed Bug: Apple Confirms iPhones, iPads and Macs Not Vulnerable

Apple has confirmed that none of its products are directly affected by the Heartbleed Bug which caused huge waves of panic across the internet this week.

In case you missed it, Heartbleed is the name given to a tiny flaw in a version of the OpenSSL software which two-thirds of the active websites on the internet rely on to encrypt communications.

After the bug was made public on Monday the fallout built to a crescendo later in the week when newspapers, along with radio and TV stations, featured the Heartbleed Bug as their main story.

Front page headlines urging people to cheange all their passwords immediately drew some criticism from the security industry who said that passwords should only be changed when the affected system has been updated and new keys issued.

The fwear-inducing headline led many people asked whether the devices they were using everyday were also affected. Google confirmed that a specific version of Android was affected, putting millions of smartphones and tablets at risk.

iPhone, iPad and Macs all safe

Apple has now issued a statement about its devices, saying that none of the software running on its iPhone, iPad, iPod, or Apple Mac computers is affected.

"Apple takes security very seriously. iOS and OS X never incorporated the vulnerable software and key Web-based services were not affected," Apple said in a statement to US website Re/code.

This will help put people's mind at ease about using their iPhones and iPads, but it should be remembered that the websites users visit on their Apple products are of course still vulnerable.