Council says it's not affected by 'Heartbleed'

The Heartbleed bug appears in a piece of open source software called OpenSSL, which encrypts software between a computer and a server.
The bug allows Internet users to read the memory of protected systems information as the encryption provides security and privacy for applications, including passwords and credit card details.
Half a million sites are thought to have been affected by the bug, including Facebook, Gmail and Yahoo, and web experts initially advised that people should change their passwords.
However, some experts say that changing a password is ineffective until a site has updated its servers.
West Berkshire Council says it has checked all its customer-facing systems, which included a scan by an independent company, which found no problems.
The council says that in each aspect of the its system, it is either not running the open source software called OpenSSL - the cited source of the bug - or the version is not vulnerable to the bug.
Meanwhile, the council is in the process of upgrading its operating system to Windows 7.
The council is currently running Windows XP, which Microsoft is slowly phasing out support for, however, security support for the system is being extended for another year.
Council spokesman, Keith Ulyatt, said that the councils system upgrade would be complete by Autumn so there would be no problems when support for XP ceased.