Checklist 180: Scams, Sign-Ins, and Automatic Updates

This week on the Checklist, we’ll share a new warning about coronavirus scams, update you on the state of Apple’s secure sign-in service, and debate the merits of our own advice!

Four Apps for Helping Others

The Covid-19 pandemic has created an enormous amount of stress and uncertainty. It’s understandable: We’re worried about our relatives, nervous about the state of the economy, and concerned for our own health. We all want to know when things will return to normal, but there is no clear answer to that question.

There’s a lot that is out of our control. At times like this, many people find that doing something to help others — taking positive action to bring some good into the world — can actually help to alleviate …

Cybersecurity Film and TV Guide

Many of us will be stuck inside for the foreseeable future. But while we won’t be heading to the movies any time soon, that doesn’t mean we have to go without entertainment!

Checklist 179: An Updates Update

Apple has released updates for a number of apps and OSes over the past couple of weeks. In this Checklist, we’ll take you through the most important of these — covering new features as well as security fixes.

LightSpy: APT malware for iOS

Security researchers have discovered a new form of iOS malware that they’ve dubbed LightSpy affecting both iOS and Android.

A Checklist of Checklists Around Covid-19

The Checklist is taking a break this week, but with all that’s going on in the world, and with so many new changes to the way we live and work, we wanted to point you to some resources that can help keep you safe and happy.

Apple’s March 2020 Updates

Apple has just released a raft of updates, and some of them have important security and privacy implications. In this brief article, we’ll highlight some of the key points from Cupertino’s release notes and explain their significance. Then (in a sign of the times) we’ll offer a special addendum to our update guidance.

macOS 10.15.4

Version 10.15.4 of macOS patches a number of serious vulnerabilities. Related security patches were also issued to support older versions of the operating system; these were named Security Update 2020-002 Mojave and Security Update 2020-002 High Sierra.

One …

Avoiding Covid-19 Financial Relief Scams

In a bid to blunt the economic fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic, U.S. lawmakers have proposed a program of direct relief payments to citizens. The first payments are expected sometime in April 2020, though the specifics are still undetermined. However, due to the high potential for fraudsters to take advantage of the situation, the United States Federal Trade Commission has already issued an alert to the public to be on the lookout for scams.

In what follows, we’ll talk about several scams you may encounter, and tell you what you should …

Checklist 178: Another Coronavirus Checklist

The world is changing so fast that it can be hard to keep up. This week on the Checklist, we’ll take a look at how life is going to be different in the weeks and months ahead — and what you can do to stay safe, productive … and happy.

Security and privacy in a pandemicCybersecurity for remote workersTips from two decades of working at homeWorst-case scenario preparedness

Keeping your data locked down

The current Covid-19 pandemic is a global crisis, and public and private sector organizations are responding accordingly. In the United …

SecureMac Releases MacScan 3.3

Cybersecurity firm SecureMac has released the latest version of its macOS malware detection and removal tool: MacScan 3.3.

Objective by the Sea 3.0

The world’s only Mac and iOS security conference returned home to Maui last week, with some of the best minds in Apple security research coming together for a few days of learning, training, information sharing, and tool demos.

The conference is a truly one-of-a-kind event, and not only strengthens the Mac security community but also allows students and younger researchers to network with some of the top experts in their field. For this reason, SecureMac was proud to help sponsor the conference for yet another year.

The speakers at OBTS 3.0 touched …

What Is SIM Swapping?

SIM swapping is a serious cybersecurity threat — and it’s on the rise, affecting everyone from ordinary people to tech titans like Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. In this short piece, we’ll explain what SIM swapping is, how it works, and how to protect yourself.

What is SIM swapping?

SIM swapping can be thought of as part social engineering scam, part identity theft. A SIM swap takes place when a bad actor convinces (or bribes) a cellular carrier to transfer a victim’s mobile number to a SIM card that they own.

How does SIM …

Checklist 177: The Coronavirus Checklist

This Checklist is all about Covid-19, the severe new form of coronavirus which has recently reached pandemic status. We’ll cover several safety issues related to the virus — both digital and physical

Sarah Edwards on digital forensic analysis

Sarah Edwards is a digital forensic analyst whose area of specialization is Mac and iOS forensics. She works as a Senior Digital Forensics Researcher for BlackBag Technologies, and is also a teacher, holding the position of Principal Instructor at the SANS Institute, where her pedagogical skills have garnered praise from students and colleagues alike. In addition, Edwards is the creator of an open-source tool for iOS and macOS forensics called APOLLO, which she will discuss at the upcoming Objective by the Sea 3.0 Mac security conference. We spoke …

Are Adware and PUPs Really Harmless?

Mac malware is largely made up of adware and Potentially Unwanted Programs (PUPs) — and these are often regarded as nuisances rather than true dangers.

11 Ways to Make Remote Work Safer

As the Covid-19 virus continues to spread, more companies will consider remote work as a way to keep their teams healthy and safe. But for many businesses, this will be their first experiment with remote work at scale — and they may not be ready for the cybersecurity issues that it brings.

Checklist 176: Cloudiness Around Clearview AI

Checklist 176 is all about privacy, security, and the little startup that may have stolen your face.

What is Stalkerware?

We’ll tell you everything you need to know in order to understand what stalkerware is and how to avoid it.

Security researcher Phil Stokes on the state of Mac malware

Phil Stokes is a malware researcher and technical writer for SentinelOne, an emerging powerhouse in the world of enterprise cybersecurity. He is also an independent app developer who has created several macOS troubleshooting tools. In March, he will present his research at the Objective by the Sea 3.0 macOS security conference. We spoke with Phil about the state of Mac malware today — and why Apple is going to need all the help it can get.

New research suggests that Mac malware is increasing exponentially — and even beginning …

The Checklist 175: Certified Good for a Limited Time

On this week’s Checklist, we’ll talk about Apple’s moves to improve web security. We’ll look at what Google is doing to make downloads safer. And last but not least, we’ll give you a quick intro to data breach prevention.