Don't FREAK out over the Factoring Attack on RSA-EXPORT Keys

It's about time we got things, by which I mean security vulnerabilities, into freakin' perspective. Currently the IT security industry and the media covering it are, in my opinion, in danger of becoming the internet equivalent of Chicken Little. Every time a vulnerability is discovered which has the potential to impact upon large numbers of users we get the same 'the sky is falling' message writ large. Yet potential and probability are not automatic bedfellows, which appears to have passed many headline and press release writers by. The latest falling acorn to be mistaken for a piece of the internet sky is FREAK, or Factoring Attack on RSA-EXPORT Keys to be a little more formal about things.