How Does the FBI Hack People?

Do you think the government respects your privacy? For a lot of people, the illusion of such a belief was shattered three years ago, when Edward Snowden leaked thousands of pages of documents about the NSA’s spying programs. But the NSA isn’t the only government agency that may be breaching the constitutional rights of citizens. On the contrary, the FBI is right there in the mix too, and a fascinating article recently published by Wired provides a glimpse into precisely how the bureau does it.

Specifically, the article covers …

What Do Our Web Browsers Really Know About Us? Pt 1/2

As we step tentatively closer to a world with cameras in just about everything (Google Glass, anyone?), privacy concerns continue to rise. While the advent of red-light cameras and GPS-enabled cellphones have ushered in an age where our movements in public can be easily tracked, those aren’t the only things to worry about; we also need to consider the trail of digital breadcrumbs created every time we surf the web, whether at home or at the office.

But what do our browsers really know about us? What does it …

Why the Internet of Things May Be More Trouble Than It’s Worth

The Internet of Things is a concept that seeks to connect just about everything in our lives into one cohesive network. We already know that our smartphones, tablets, and computers are connected to the internet and the cloud. Increasingly, though, other “smart” devices—from televisions to refrigerators to thermostats—are connected as well.

This increased trend toward connectivity has seen a growth in the concept of “smart homes,” where you can control many different appliances and technologies in your house remotely. From turning on the lights before you get home to …

SecureMac interview: Dan Kusnetzky

SecureMac recently caught up with Dan Kusnetzky of Virtualization Review to discuss the growing threat of ransomware, you can read all about it here.

Apple Blocking Outdated Versions of Adobe Flash

Have you tried to use Adobe Flash Player on your Mac recently, only to get a message about your Flash Player plug-in being blocked or out-of-date? As of April 28th, Apple has begun blocking older versions of the Flash plug-in. You will need to update Adobe Flash Player before you can access audio or video content, view animations, or carry out any other tasks that require Adobe Flash.

The sudden blockage of Adobe Flash is not a glitch or an error on Apple’s part. On the contrary, according to an email …

Outdated Git Version in OS X Puts Developers at Risk

Update: May 4, 2016 –  Apple has released an updated version of Xcode to patch this vulnerability. Users can download Xcode 7.3.1 directly from Apple’s developer site at: https://developer.apple.com/xcode/download/

An outdated Git client in Apple’s Command Line Tools Package is putting OS X developers at risk by opening them up to remote code execution. According to a report from MacWorld, developers will typically use Xcode when developing apps for OS X or iOS, which means they are working on Macs that use Apple’s Command Line Tools package. The issue is that the …

New iOS Threat Capable of “Bricking” iPhones and iPads

If you haven’t updated your iPhone or iPad to the most current version of iOS—iOS 9.3.1—you should make it a priority to do so. That was the advice of security expert Brian Krebs in an April 12 blog post about a potentially devastating new iOS threat. Interestingly, this new threat is as simple as it is dangerous—to the point where any given iPhone or iPad user could manually trip the vulnerability on their own.

To understand what Krebs is talking about, we need to look back a few months …

Johns Hopkins University Team Finds Weakness in Apple Encryption

The FBI was recently pushing for Apple to advertently weaken their encryption technology so that they could crack a terrorist’s iPhone. But based on a recent report from Johns Hopkins University, Apple’s mobile encryption technology is already flawed—or at least, it was.

According to the Washington Post, Johns Hopkins computer science professor Matthew Green recently convened the research team that found this particular zero-day flaw. At first, Green and his research team were mum about exactly how they attacked Apple’s encryption. Their silence gave Apple time to address the …

Malware Scam Uses Phone GPS Data to Pose as Traffic Cops

Email-based scams often trick users into clicking a link by purporting to be from law enforcement agencies or police authorities. A new malware scam out of the small town of Tredyffrin, Pennsylvania takes the concept to the next level by using GPS data to create a greater sense of legitimacy.

According to a report from The Verge, the new scam works by tricking victims into thinking they owe fines for speeding citations. Unlike many email scams, though, this one doesn’t sell the charade by making the email look …

Default Security Settings You Should Change on Your Mac

Whether you just pulled your brand new Mac computer out of the box or are looking for ways to make your system more secure in light of recent OS X threats and vulnerabilities, there are several default Mac security settings that are not in your best interest to keep. Here are just a few settings you should change if you want to make sure that your Mac is as secure as possible.

Customize Your Password Settings: Entering your password every time you boot up your Mac or open your …

Meet AceDeceiver: The First iOS Trojan Horse

Users of iOS devices should be on alert after the arrival of what looks like the first Trojan Horse malware developed for Apple’s mobile operating system. According to a post by Palo Alto Networks, this malware—which is known as AceDeceiver—is unique among other iOS threats in that it doesn’t use counterfeit enterprise certificates to gain access to your device. AceDeceiver doesn’t use an enterprise certificate at all. Rather, it manipulates a major vulnerability in Apple’s DRM (digital rights management) and uses it to install malicious apps on your phone …

New Version of iOS Will Let You Know If Your Employer is Monitoring Your iPhone

If your employer gave you an iPhone when they hired or promoted you, then they are free to track what you do with that phone. This statement has always been true and is one of the top reasons not to send any nasty messages about your boss on a company-owned piece of hardware.

Apple’s mobile operating system has always played into this privilege well for employers, making it easy for your bosses to track your phone if it gets lost, view your internet history, and more. Those features …

A pair of password stealing trojan horses from the App Store are wreaking havoc with Instagram accounts

If you’ve recently downloaded InstaCare – Who cares with me? or the similarly-named Who Cares With Me – InstaDetector, you might want to double-check the security of your Instagram account.

The trojan horses, which were also being distributed in the Google Play Store, entice Instagram users with the lure of seeing who viewed their profile. Once installed, the malicious apps steal login credentials for Instagram, sending the username and password to a server controlled by malware author. From there, the affected Instagram accounts are hacked and used …

Apple: FBI Could Force Us to Turn On iPhone Cameras, Microphones

All along, Apple’s biggest argument in their case against the FBI has been one of slippery slopes and escalation. The FBI wants Apple to create software that would allow them to unlock the San Bernardino shooter’s iPhone. Apple says that, once such a backdoor tool is created, they will not be able to guarantee that cybercriminals wouldn’t be able to use it to their advantage. In other words, in order to weaken the security of one iPhone, Apple would have to weaken the security of all iPhones.

Now, as …

The DataVault Password Manager: A Review and Basic How-To Guide

Available for $9.99 from the Mac App Store, the DataVault Password Manager from Ascendo is a robust password management application that is worth the modest price of admission. The program allows you to store passwords, login details, credit card information, membership information, insurance details, vehicle information, and more—all in one secure spot on your computer.

The program uses 256-bit AES encryption to protect your passwords and other sensitive information and has a range of other security features that will help you feel safe, as well. You can even …

Are Popular Mac Apps Rendering Your Computer Unsafe?

Could you be rendering your Mac vulnerable to cyberattacks, just by running several popular applications? That’s the contention being made by security researchers, according to a recent report from Ars Technica. The report highlights popular BitTorrent downloading program uTorrent and screen-cropping video software Camtasia among “a large number of Mac apps” that are likely putting users in danger.

A Man-in-the-Middle Attack

So what’s the problem? According to the Ars Technica report, the danger here is what is called a “man-in-the-middle attack.” In this type of attack, a hacker hijacks a …

Typosquatters Targeting Mac Users Who Mistype URLS

Another day, another Mac malware threat to be aware of. The latest threat comes in the form of typosquatters, who are targeting make users who accidentally mistype URLs while browsing the web. According to a post written by Tom Spring on Threatpost, the Kaspersky Lab security news service, users who accidentally type .om (instead of .com) while browsing the web leave themselves open to the threat.

As with most two letter URL suffixes, .om is the top level domain for a foreign country (in this case, Oman of the …

Has Hacking Team Returned? New Mac Malware Suggests As Much

Last year, the spyware developer Hacking Team seemed to go down in flames after a massive internal leak exposed the company’s dirty secrets for the world to see. Prior to that occurrence, the Milan-based firm had been in operation since 2003, selling products to governments, law enforcement, corporations, and other entities to help them spy on customers or private citizens. From monitoring emails to breaking encrypted communications, all the way to covertly activating webcams, Hacking Team traded in software that gleefully wrecked privacy rights and laundry lists of other …

Apple and the FBI Do Battle in Front of Congress

For weeks, Apple and the FBI have been arguing with one another over matters of privacy, cybersecurity, and national security. In February, the FBI issued a court order demanding that Apple help them break the iPhone’s security measures. Specifically, the government wants Apple to write software that would allow the FBI to get around iPhone encryption and other security safeguards.

Right now, the FBI wants to crack the iPhone that belonged to the terrorist behind the San Bernardino, California shooting that took place on December 2, 2015. In …

Apple Busts (And Then Fixes) Ethernet Ports

In an age where wireless internet is available just about everywhere, the wired Ethernet protocol may well be a technology of the past. If you were using an Ethernet port on a Mac computer recently, you might have even noticed that it stopped working entirely. Now, Apple has addressed the issue and released a rather complex fix for the problem on their support site.

According to Apple, the malfunctioning Ethernet ports were the result of a software update that included a flawed version of “Incompatible Kernel Extension Configuration Data.” …