Hacker From China Wastes Little Time in Exploiting Heartbleed

For those who don't feel the urgency to install the latest security fixes for their computers, take note: Just a day after Heartbleed was revealed, attacks from a computer in China were launched.

The software bug, which affects a widely used form of encryption called OpenSSL, was announced to the world April 7 at 1:27 p.m. New York time, according to the Sydney Morning Herald. That sent companies scrambling to fix their computer systems -- and for good reason.

At 8:23 p.m. the following day, a computer in China that was previously used for hacking and other malicious activities tried to attack a server at the University of Michigan, said J. Alex Halderman, an assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer science. The university's computer was a "honeypot," which was intentionally left vulnerable and designed to attract attacks so researchers could study them.