The SecureMac Interview: Voatz on mobile voting

Voatz is a privately-owned mobile voting platform backed by blockchain technology. The company began somewhat spontaneously — founder Nimit Sawhney built the prototype on a whim during a SXSW hackathon — but has since grown into a full-fledged mobile voting company, operating public and private elections around the country and attracting millions of dollars in funding from investors.

We sat down with the team at Voatz to discuss their platform, and to get their take on the larger issues surrounding technology and democracy.

Free and fair elections …

Best of the Checklist: February 6th, 2020

The Checklist is taking a brief hiatus, but will return next week with a new show. In the meantime, check out these Checklists from the archives.

8 Tips to Keep your iPhone Healthy and Safe

Your iPhone is a marvel of engineering: slick, powerful, and easy to use. But it’s also a complex device, with lots of little-known features — and it’s not immune to security issues. Here are 8 tips to help you get more out of your iPhone, and to keep it running smoothly and safely for years to come.

Apple Updates macOS, iOS, and more

Apple has released updated versions of its major operating systems, with some important bug fixes and security patches. In this brief article, we’ll take you through the highlights of the release notes and let you know what they mean.

Checklist 172: A Ring of Trouble

On this week’s Checklist, we’ll revisit the issues with Amazon’s Ring, take another look at iCloud backups, and hit the highlights from Apple’s latest round of OS updates.

6 Things to Know about Open Firmware Password Protection

Macs are very safe computers, but they’re not immune to attacks — or to theft. Luckily, your Mac has some hidden features that can be enabled for extra security. One of these is Open Firmware Password Protection. Here’s what you need to know about it.

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Apple in space: 7 things you should know

Toward the end of last year, reports and rumors surfaced about a top-secret Apple program to develop satellite communications technology.

Apple and the FBI

The government wants Apple to unlock a terrorist’s iPhone. Are they asking the impossible?

In the wake of the December terrorist attack at Naval Air Station Pensacola, in which three service members lost their lives, the federal government has renewed calls for Apple to provide a “backdoor” by which authorities can bypass the encryption on iPhones.

In this brief article, we’ll look at the background to this most recent clash between Apple and the U.S. Department of Justice, and we’ll examine the issue from a technical perspective as …

Checklist 171: Here, FIDO!

On this week’s Checklist, we’ll see how private your iCloud backups really are; we’ll examine the strange story of how the richest person in the world got hacked; and finally, we’ll look at a technology that promises a better way to do 2FA.

This week on the Checklist:

Considering iCloud and end-to-end encryptionA WhatsApp bromance gone badIf you’ve got an iPhone, here’s FIDO!

 
What happens in your iCloud…

We’ve known for a while that iCloud backup data isn’t protected by end-to-end encryption — meaning that encryption keys aren’t stored only on the user’s device, …

Cybersecurity New Year’s Resolution #4: Teach someone about cybersecurity

Rather than doing something to protect yourself, we’ll challenge you to teach someone else about cybersecurity and help them take steps to keep themselves safe.

Checklist 170: A Great Big List + Home Insecurity

On this week’s Checklist, we’ll take a look at someone else’s checklist of security tips, plus we’ll talk about what happens when companies that don’t specialize in security decide to get into the security business.

Cybersecurity New Year’s Resolution #3: Test your phishing awareness

By testing your knowledge of the full spectrum of phishing tactics out there — by seeing what you know…and what you don’t — you’ll be better equipped to deal with even the sneakiest of phishing attempts.

The California Consumer Privacy Act

The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) is legislation designed to protect the digital privacy and consumer rights of residents of the State of California.

Why you should update Firefox right now, according to the U.S. Department of...

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has issued an alert about a “critical vulnerability” affecting Mozilla’s Firefox browser. The DHS has advised all Firefox users to update their browser software immediately.

In this short article, we’ll explain what the vulnerability is, help you parse the language used in the security advisory, tell you who is affected, and let you know how to get your updates and stay safe.

What is the vulnerability?

According to the Mozilla security advisory, the vulnerability was due to a flaw in the “IonMonkey JIT compiler”, which could “lead …

Checklist 169: New Year, New Rules!

It’s the first Checklist of 2020, and we’re starting things off with some important privacy news from the great state of California. We’ll also discuss (another) potential issue with Amazon’s Ring doorbell surveillance camera. And finally, we’ll leave you with a decidedly low-tech security tip that you’ll want to remember all year long!

Cybersecurity New Year’s Resolution #2: Turn on 2FA

Two-factor authentication, or 2FA, is one of the best cybersecurity tools available to you. The main benefit of two-factor authentication is that it adds another layer of protection to your accounts and services, above and beyond passwords

RCS chat: a better SMS for Android?

Android has started rolling out Rich Communication Services (RCS) chat features to users of its Messages app, touting this as a better, more up-to-date successor to traditional SMS texting. However, there is still some confusion about what RCS is…

Is your bank a privacy threat?

Many people are aware that large tech companies like Facebook and Google collect and monetize user data . But privacy advocates are now sounding the alarm about the growing trend of consumer banks and credit card companies doing the same thing.

Best of the Checklist: January 2nd, 2019

The Checklist is taking a little holiday break this week, but we’ll be back on the 9th of January with a new podcast. Until then, we’d like to invite you to check out these classic Checklists you might have missed, especially as they touch on topics that have been in the news of late! 

In what follows, we’ll let you know what’s been going on in the world of cybersecurity for the past week, and then we’ll point you to a Checklist where you can learn more.

This Best of the Checklist …

Cybersecurity in 2019: Top 9 stories that show what the future holds

This year was a big one for cybersecurity news, with plenty of stories worthy of inclusion in a year-end review. We’ll take you through the top stories of 2019 which help us see the shape of things to come.