2019 Kicks Off with several Apple Security Issues

The year may not yet even be a few weeks old, but already the headlines have been crowded with a range of issues that Apple users would do well to notice. From malware slipping past Gatekeeper to a mysteriously cancelled hacker conference appearance, there’s plenty to take in this January. What do you need to know about the latest in Mac news?

First, watch out for more suspicious phone calls that seem like they’re coming from Apple. Phishing scammers have apparently taken to spoofing Apple’s identity and are making calls to …

Checklist 120: New Year Old Worries

It’s a new year — but some old worries have followed us into 2019, still lingering and causing some concerns. That means it’s time to shake off the last of the sleepiness still hanging around from the holidays and get back down to business. We have phishers making calls looking for info, more issues with troublesome apps that evaded Apple’s notice, and an update to the unfolding story about how Marriott Hotels suffered one of the biggest recent data breaches. So that means that on our list for today, we’re …

Checklist 119: Hacky Holidays!

The holidays are here — and so is the entire Checklist crew! On this week’s special holiday edition of the show, we’re veering into something new and fun. Rather than bringing you depressing stories about data breaches or the headlines about whatever Facebook’s latest follies may be, we’re sinking into the sofa with mugs of hot chocolate (and mini marshmallows, of course) for a holiday movie marathon. We aren’t flipping on the Hallmark channel, though, because on our list for this week, we’re going to tick off these stories:

An 11-year-old …

What’s in Apple’s Latest Security Digest?

Apple recently released a comprehensive set of security updates, affecting devices and applications ranging from the iPhone to the Apple Watch to iTunes to the Apple TV. Below, we have outlined some basic details about these updates, including the devices they are intended for and the security problems they fix.

APPLE-SA-2018-12-06-1 watchOS 5.1.2

This update for watchOS addresses numerous security vulnerabilities that could be exploited to gain or elevate privileges, to execute arbitrary code, to spoof the watch interface, or to present untrusted configurations as verified or trustworthy.

APPLE-SA-2018-12-05-7 Shortcuts 2.1.2

Apple has not …

Checklist 118: Australia Ruins Everything

With the New Year starting to peek over the horizon, The Checklist is heading to Oz in this week’s discussion — not in terms of “The Wizard of,” though, but “Australia!” There’s a story from Australia this week that has us quite cross, though we also have something to be happy about as Apple starts giving Safari users even more options for safety. We’ll follow that with an update on a story we brought you last week that, while not objectively good, still gives us some good feelings — sometimes …

SecureMac Celebrates Two Years of The Checklist Podcast

Las Vegas, Nevada — With more than 118 episodes in the history books, SecureMac is proud to mark the passing of two years since the initial launch of The Checklist, a weekly privacy and security-focused podcast for users of iOS, macOS, and all things Apple. Hosted by Ken Ray, creator of the long-running and enduringly popular show Mac OS Ken, and SecureMac’s own founder Nicholas Raba, and lead developer Nicholas Ptacek, The Checklist aims to be an easily accessible source of important security news. In an increasingly dangerous digital age, …

Checklist 117: Once More Into the Breaches

As we get back into the groove of things in between the major holidays, the security hits keep on coming as it starts to look like there are more than just a few weeds in the “walled garden” that is the iOS App Store. Elsewhere, things aren’t always as they seem either as one of the most fundamental ways we know we’re safe on the web turns out to not be so ironclad. And of course, what would an episode of The Checklist be without a discussion about the latest …

SecureMac’s PrivacyScan 1.9.5 Brings Powerful Privacy Protections to Mojave

Las Vegas, Nevada – How many companies are tracking where you go online right now? Answering that question isn’t easy, but one thing is sure: it’s not a small number, and it’s growing! From third-party advertisers to social media giants, tracking users is common-place across the web.

With headlines about major security breaches and privacy failures appearing with increasing frequency, Mac users can be left wondering: what can I do about this? It starts with protecting one’s private browsing data and eliminating troublesome tracking cookies. To help users …

Checklist 116: It’s In The Mail

Welcome in to our post-Thanksgiving episode of The Checklist, brought to you by SecureMac.

Holiday weeks are typically where news goes to die — everyone shovels out the stories they don’t really want to talk about in the hopes that no one will notice, being instead too distracted by football and stuffing. Does it always work? Nope. Not when you’ve got people like us with their eyes peeled for the stories worth discussing. This week, we’re bringing you a few stories that those involved might have preferred to keep …

Checklist 115: A Cornucopia of Security Stuffing

We’re stuffed on security news this week, with a cornucopia of subjects to sort through in our discussion. We’ll be chatting about a major online retailer fumbling with some of your data just before the biggest shopping season of the year, as well as crypto-miners striking some surprising targets, and a founder of the Web as we know it trying to make the online world a better place. So, we hope you’ve saved room for seconds, because cooking up on this week’s list, we have:

A bit of an oops …

Apple Releases, Updates macOS Mojave and iOS 12, But Bricks Some Users’...

In early September, Apple achieved two milestone releases: the arrival of iOS 12 for mobile devices and macOS Mojave for the desktop environment. Along with a host of bug fixes, both operating systems pushed their security hardening forward. Most notably, users on macOS can now trust that applications won’t gain access to the full contents of their hard disk without permission. While the changes do add the potential for dialog box fatigue and has impacted the operation of some software, it’s in line with Apple’s continued efforts to lock down …

Checklist 114: What’s the Internet for Again?

Welcome in to another episode of The Checklist, brought to you by SecureMac. We’re diving right into the headlines again today, looking first at a new improvement to Mac security, plus a couple of the more interesting stories floating around in the world of computer security this week. So, on our list for this week, we’ve got the following stories:

New Macs get physical with their mics
What’s the Internet for again?
Making laws to handle mishandled data

Let’s kick off today’s discussion with a look at an interesting new security feature …

Passcode Bypass Exploit for iOS 12.1 Appears Just After Release

Just a few hours after Apple released iOS 12.1 – which contained a few new features and a large slate of bug fixes – a security researcher identified a new privacy flaw. The researcher, Jose Rodriguez, recently made headlines a few weeks ago after identifying a problem with Siri similar to this new vulnerability. In both cases, an unauthorized user could access restricted information by bypassing a user’s PIN passcode. Though the exploits require physical access to your device to execute, they can result in the exposure of photos (in …

Checklist 113: Security Breaks and Fixes in iOS

A slightly surprising slip-up on Apple’s part, a helpful security how-to, and an update on a persistent foe — that’s what we’re diving into this week as we tour the headlines and pluck out the security stories that seem most ripe for an interesting discussion. On today’s list, we’re checking off the following stories:

A bypass in Apple’s hours-old update
Scammy subscriptions, and how to stop them
And GrayKey is getting stuck in the lock

This week, we’re starting off with a pretty unique story. When Apple releases a new update, the …

Checklist 112: Security as an Obstacle in Mojave

Last week, we brought you a discussion about some of the latest security and privacy features in Apple’s latest major release, macOS Mojave. Not everything is as it should be, though. Sure, Mojave is just fine for the average user – that’s the determination we made last week – but there are a few problems that have appeared in the days and weeks since its public release. This week, we’re talking about those issues and what’s up with them. On our list:

Full Disk Access Gives Up a Little Too …

Checklist 111: macOS Mojave

Say goodbye to High Sierra, and hello to Mojave! On September 24, Apple released the latest version of its core operating system, macOS, bringing with it not only many security improvements but also some new additions for online and offline privacy, as well. For those who tuned in to our in-depth look at the latest features in iOS 12, some of these will sound familiar due to the way Apple has harmonized its digital ecosystem. Other features are new and exciting — but not entirely free from problems. Within …

Checklist 110: Security and Privacy in iOS 12

It’s finally here! On September 17, Apple introduced iOS 12, the latest version of the operating system that makes our iPhones and iPads tick. Packed with a ton of new features, there’s more to iOS 12 than new Animojis and screen time monitoring services. Even a quick look reveals that it’s filled with all kinds of security goodies, too. In this week’s discussion, we’ve taken a deep dive into the changes to see for ourselves what Apple has done to increase mobile security and privacy. What have they implemented …

The release of iOS 12 Brings Both Security Improvements and Bug Fixes

The latest major version of Apple’s flagship mobile operating has been released, along with a group of updates shared among iOS and many other products, include macOS Mojave and watchOS. As a significant milestone, iOS 12 consists of a variety of hardened security improvements alongside various fixes for many different vulnerabilities and bugs. From making good security easier for users, to locking down loopholes, there’s a lot to unpack in iOS 12.

First up: the latest improvements to the operating system itself. With two-factor authentication more important for user …

Checklist 109: The Weakness is Wetware

Social engineering strikes again, the intersection of the digital world and constitutional law, and more — that’s the gist of the tour we’re taking around the headlines in today’s discussion. On our list for this week, we’ve got:

The Weakness is Wetware
Your Face and the Fifth Amendment
Questions About Last Week’s Wi-Fi Questions

We’re kicking off this week with a look at a story from Cult of Mac with a scary headline you might have seen recently about a vulnerability that “lets hackers steal business passwords” from Apple machines. That …

Checklist 108: Hotel Wi-Fi How-To

This week on The Checklist, we’re going on vacation! No, wait — it’s a business trip. Maybe… the house is being fumigated! Whatever the reason is, we have to check into a hotel, leaving our home network behind. Good news, though: the hotel has free Wi-Fi for us to use! The bad news: we weren’t the ones to set up the security for the hotel’s wireless network. We don’t know who’s staying in the room next door, or what they might be up to… and then to top it …