5 Handy “Hacks” to Get More Functionality Out of Your iPhone

Not every “hack” is a bad thing — in the true sense of the word, a “hack” means a clever and ingenious method for accomplishing something. You might know this from popular articles about “lifehacks.” Did you know that your iPhone has all kinds of built-in functionality that Apple doesn’t always advertise directly? Try out some of these handy “hacks” on your phone to see what you can accomplish.

New Phishing Scam Targets iPhone Users over the Phone

Scams that put Apple users in the crosshairs are nothing new, but the scammers are always looking for new ways to try to trick us into forking over access to our data. Based on the amount of information we store on our phones these days, it’s not hard to see why they make enticing targets for theft. With that said, it’s important to remember that the phishing attempts of today seldom stay only in the digital world. It isn’t just about avoiding suspicious emails or shady websites. In the state …

Checklist 65: An Overview of the Mac’s Most Important Built-in Security...

For this week’s show, we’re back to talking about the Mac — more specifically, addressing some of the most important security features baked directly into macOS. What steps has Apple taken to keep users safe, and what tools are there to make sure we’re all enjoying our Macs safely and securely? Perhaps you know someone who is about to get a new Mac, or maybe you’re even the one giving it as a gift for the holidays! Being able to learn about staying safe on a new machine is important. …

Apple Patches MacOS High Sierra Login Vulnerability

“Is Apple getting sloppy?”

That was the headline of a BBC article published on Wednesday, November 29th, 2017, reporting the discovery of a major security issue in Apple’s MacOS High Sierra operating system. It seems that a bug within the OS made it possible for anyone to access a High Sierra computer by exploiting a simple login loophole.

Usually, when you login as a user on a Mac, you must enter your username and password. On machines running High Sierra, though, it was possible to enter “root” as the username, …

Checklist 64: Safely Shopping for Technology This Holiday Season

The holiday shopping season has arrived again — and with this episode, we’re turning our attention to some security issues specific to this time of year. With Christmas coming up, you might be looking at all kinds of electronic gadgets for your friends and family. From tech-based toys to Internet of Things products, retailers have more web-connected devices available for us every year.

While it’s certainly a fun time of year, opening some of these gifts during the holidays could also mean opening up your loved ones to a …

Checklist 63: Your Guide to Securing Your Parents’ Computer

During last week’s episode, our discussion centered around talking to your parents about the importance of computer security, and how to educate them on essential steps to take. This week, we’re going to move beyond the parents and look at their computers ourselves —with their permission of course! After your pep talk about strong passwords, you should hope to find their computer protected with a password you can’t guess.

While it’s easy enough to explain how to do things like create strong passwords and to run security software as …

Checklist 62: Talking to Your Parents About Computer Security

Remember back when you were a kid, and someone sat you down to have “The Talk”? It might have been your parents, or it could have been a teacher, but we’ve all been through the experience of learning about “the birds and the bees.” It’s a pivotal moment, and learning about the facts of life can be, well, life-changing. It’s also essential for keeping you safe as you continue to grow up. Well, now you’re grown — you’re older and definitely a little wiser. It might be time to sit down with your parents and have your own version of The Talk with them.

Checklist 61: App Stores, Malware, and How Security Firms Do Their Jobs

For years, people laboured under the misconceptions that Apple hardware and operating systems were immune to the threats and malware faced by the people who use Windows. While macOS may be stronger in some respects, what made the Mac the safest was the fact that relatively few people used it compared to Windows. But times have changed! For most of the past decade, growth for Apple machines has outpaced that of Windows machines. General consumers “saw the light” through the iPod and the iPhone and decided to give the …

iPhone Apps with Camera Permissions Could Secretly Take Your Picture

When is your phone able to take a picture? Put that question to the average user and chances are they will say something about having the actual camera viewfinder on screen. Whether it’s from the default camera app, Instagram, or Facebook, we all expect that the camera isn’t at work when we can’t see ourselves on the screen. As one Google researcher, Felix Krause, recently uncovered, however, that is not actually the case. In fact, when users grant permissions to apps for the use of the camera, it turns …

Apple Releases iOS 11.1 and Other Important Security Updates

The latest round of Apple security updates arrived on Halloween, delivering everything from iOS 11.1 to updates that affect macOS, watchOS, and more. As is often the case with large patch days, these updates address a wide variety of security flaws affecting different parts of the systems in question. From WebKit vulnerabilities to memory handling issues on the Apple Watch and in macOS, Apple squashed plenty of bugs with this batch of updates. Perhaps one of the most important issues addressed in this round of updates, however, is Apple’s …

Recent Downloads from Eltima Software Were Infected with Malware

If you recently downloaded Elmedia Player or Folx—two Mac OS X programs from German-based developer Eltima Software—then your Mac may be infected with malware. According to a report from ZDNet, hackers recently managed to breach the Eltima Software servers. The hackers bundled Elmedia Player and Folx with a Mac OS X Trojan called Proton.

Elmedia Player is a popular media player app that Eltima says is capable of recognizing “any file format you probably may think of.” The app also allows for HD video playback with no slowdowns and …

Checklist 60: Safety in the App Store

Our lives are on our computers and our phones: there’s no getting around that fact. One day, we might look back on that and view it as a mistake, but for now, our finances, health records, communications, family photos, videos, and more all live on these devices. Keeping that information safe is important, and there are several layers of complexity to that challenge. From password practices to two-factor authentication and even to merely protecting your screen from prying eyes, we’ve covered a lot of these tactics on this show. …

Ransomware Attacks Target Apple Users Via iCloud

A recent rash of ransomware attacks has left some Apple users locked out of their Mac computers and iOS devices. The nature of the attacks led some users to wonder if Apple itself had suffered some kind of hack. The good news is that the situation does not appear to be an Apple hack. The bad news is that hackers have somehow managed to get their hands-on login credentials for some users.

Hackers are attacking users by logging into their iCloud accounts and enabling the “Find My iPhone” function. …

Apple Acknowledges U.S. Senate’s Request for Details about iPhone X Face ID...

As in previous years, Apple’s 2017 September keynote brought device announcements, new feature introductions, and other headline-worthy events. What’s different this year, though, is that it also prompted the United States Senate to contact Apple about security and privacy concerns.

Those concerns surrounded the announcement of Apple’s revolutionary iPhone X, the first iPhone ever to ditch the commonplace home button. Specifically, the Senate had questions about the new iPhone’s Face ID feature, which will replace Touch ID as the primary way to unlock the iPhone.

The letter, …

Checklist 59: Bitcoin and the Blockchain: Understanding Cryptocurrency and Its...

Today, we’ll be tackling a couple of buzzwords in the tech industry today: blockchains and Bitcoins. Not unlike HTTPS and botnets, blockchain and Bitcoin are terms that are starting to seep into everyday use. Before we all start using them, though, we should figure out what they mean and how they work! In fact, the blockchain concept has even begun to garner its own “buzzword” status in the security community regarding how secure it can be for storing and accessing information. So, for all our listeners who aren’t even …

Apple Reports Major Spike in Government Requests for Information

Who wants information about you? Digital security practices revolve in large part around restricting your data based on the answer to that question. We try to protect our systems so that only those with authorization can access sensitive personal information of all kinds. Most frequently, hackers are the ones we must worry about looking to learn something about us, whether it’s a password or a credit card number. However, it’s important to consider that requests from the government for user information occur on a frequent basis, and these can …

Beware the New iOS Phishing Attack

If you use iOS, you are used to the Apple popups that ask you to enter your Apple ID password. These popups are standard any time you go to download a new application from the App Store, login into iCloud, or buy a song on iTunes. Unfortunately, it looks like attackers could potentially use a similar popup strategy to gain access to a user’s Apple ID account.

So far, this style of attack hasn’t been seen out in the wild. App developer Felix Krause recently shared a proof-of-concept on …

Checklist 58: SecureMac Roundup: Even More Listener Questions Answered

This week on the Checklist, we take on some of your questions and comments. Topics include: – Scam pop-us – App specific password requirements – Issues with SS7 – Oddity around an email address.

Checklist 57: SecureMac Roundup: More Questions from Our Listeners

Part 1 of a 2 episode series where we go over various questions from our listeners!

WannaCrypt: An Overview of 2017’s Biggest Cybersecurity Threat

This past May, a malicious software attack known as WannaCrypt (or WannaCry, depending on your source) hit the computer systems at major organizations and businesses around the globe. WannaCrypt is a ransomware attack. Once it infects a machine or computer system, it encrypts all the data hosted on those machines. (Hence the name WannaCrypt.)

Once the files are encrypted, the attack prompts the owner of the machine or computer system to pay a ransom to unlock the data. The ransom offer has a time limit, giving users a …