Hackers at 25 with Renoly Santiago

The film marks its 25th anniversary this year, and we caught up with Santiago to talk about the making of Hackers; the movie’s enduring legacy, and what it means to him personally; and the relationship between technology and the arts

Checklist 207: Privacy and Security in macOS Big Sur

macOS Big Sur has arrived. Or, we’ve gotten to Big Sur. Whatever the case, there’s a host of new privacy and security features in the Mac’s latest operating system. We’re talking over some of them with SecureMac’s Nick Leon on Checklist 207.

Shopping extensions and your security

We browser extensions that function as digital shopping assistants are becoming increasingly popular, but like any piece of software, shopping extensions have potential security ramifications.

Apple introduces M1 chip and more at “One More Thing” Event

Apple just held its final Special Event of the year, aptly called “One More Thing”. This fall’s previous events had focused on the new 5G iPhones and the latest iPad and Apple Watch models.

Apple releases high-priority security patches

Apple has just updated all of its OSes. These updates include critical security patches for vulnerabilities that have been exploited in the wild.

Checklist 206: Apple’s Search for a Google Alternative with Nick Leon

This week on the Checklist, we’ll look at why some analysts think Apple could be gearing up to challenge Google’s search supremacy. We’ll discuss: Why people think Apple is getting into search, and What an Apple search engine could mean for privacy.

Is Apple building a search engine?

The web is abuzz with rumors that Apple is poised to challenge Google’s search supremacy. In this short article, we’ll tell you why people think Cupertino may be building a search engine of its own, and say what it could mean for the future of privacy.

What are the analysts seeing?

According to a report published in The Financial Times, search marketing professionals have noted a significant uptick in Applebot activity. Applebot is Apple’s proprietary web crawler, a bot that browses the web for the purpose of indexing and ranking web pages …

Checklist 205: Staying Out of the Hospital and Getting Out the Vote

This week on the Checklist, we’ll cover two timely topics: cyberattacks on hospitals, and a voting contingency plan.

U.S. officials say Iran was behind voter intimidation emails

Voters in several U.S. states have received threatening emails telling them to vote for incumbent presidential candidate Donald Trump, and vowing to “come after” them if they do not comply. U.S. officials now say that Iran was behind the emails, and that their goal was to create chaos and to undermine the legitimacy of the upcoming elections. 

In this short piece, we’ll tell you what we know about this threat, and give you some tips on how to protect yourself and others.

What was in the emails?

The emails targeted voters in several …

Checklist 204: Cybercrime and the 2020 Election

The 2020 U.S. elections are just days away, and cybercriminals — some motivated by politics, others by financial gain — are stepping up their attacks. We’ll let you know what’s happening on this edition of the Checklist.

Voter intimidation emails attributed to Iran

We’ve talked before about the issue of foreign adversaries attempting to interfere with the upcoming U.S. elections, but this week a disturbing new development came to light. 

According to the FBI and Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe, Russia and Iran have obtained the voter registration data of American citizens, …

GravityRAT Windows malware has new macOS variant

Security researchers have just announced the discovery of Android and macOS variants of GravityRAT, a Windows spyware threat that’s been around since at least 2016.

Checklist 203: T2, Revisited Plus an Actual Checklist

On this week’s Checklist, we’ll cover:

How Macs are perceived in the enterpriseAn addendum to last week’s T2 storyA checklist of security tips from the NCSA

Survey says…

Do you feel like your Mac is the best choice for security? You’re not alone.

A recent survey conducted by enterprise software management platform Jamf asked businesses—both ones that used Macs and ones that didn’t—what they thought about the Mac in terms of security.

Across the board, 77% of all organizations polled said that they believed the Mac to be more secure “out of the box”, though …