Some 13 million customers of anti-virus software, MacKeeper, had their personal data exposed recently due to a major security oversight on the developer’s database. The customer data included full names, usernames, emails, hashes of passwords, phone numbers, IP addresses, system info and other personal information.
December 14, 2015 • 2 min read
If you are using a Mac (or any computer, for that matter), it’s a concrete fact that you are eventually going to download something from the Internet. Whether it’s a new app from the App Store, a piece of free software from a third-party source,…
December 7, 2015 • 5 min read
These days, everything and everyone is connected. At work, we communicate as much via email as we do face-to-face. At home, our primary means of interacting with friends and acquaintances is through social media. Add the ever-expanding “Internet of Things,” which connects everyday objects and…
December 3, 2015 • 3 min read
With many of the “predictions” laid forth in futuristic films like Back to the Future and Minority Report coming true, it’s easy to feel like we are at a peak or plateau of the technological revolution in our society. However, while smartphones, social media, streaming…
December 2, 2015 • 3 min read
Malware is a generic term, referring to any program that can threaten the security of your computer. There are many different types of malware, including Trojan horses, keystroke loggers, hack tools, ransomware, spyware, and worms. Sometimes, these are combined to form ‘hybrid malware’, showing characteristics…
November 30, 2015 • 3 min readIf you by chance haven’t updated to Mac OS X 10.10 just yet (e.g., the Yosemite operating system update that first became available in October 2014), then you may want to hold off. According to a recent blog post by cyber security researcher Stefan Esser,…
November 30, 2015 • 5 min read
In a recent opinion piece for The Guardian, writer and technology professor John Naughton wrote about the ongoing war between Apple and Android for total dominance of the smartphone marketplace. The piece, titled “Security is the loser in the holy war between Android and Apple,”…
November 29, 2015 • 3 min read
Parents raising kids today are at a disadvantage. Thanks to the internet and the advent of countless other digital and networking technologies, modern parents have to deal with challenges and dangers that their parents never had to deal with. Worse, many of these dangers are…
November 27, 2015 • 3 min readThe Mac App Store recently booted 256 apps for violating store-wide privacy policies. According to a report from Tech Republic, Apple pulled the apps for their use of a “Chinese advertising software development kit.” Said another way, these apps were built in such a way…
November 25, 2015 • 3 min readModern parents face at least one challenge that their parents probably never had to deal with: the Internet. Kids these days spend a lot of their time online—whether researching for school assignments, playing games, or chatting with friends on social media—and all of this time…
November 25, 2015 • 5 min read
SecureMac News, Reviews & Advisories We’ve migrated our news and advisories into a dedicated area on SecureMac. Now you can quickly access the latest news from anywhere on our site by clicking the ‘news’ button at the top of the screen. At a glance, you…
November 24, 2015 • 2 min readDid Apple make a grievous error with the design of its most recent mobile device operating system, iOS 9? After launching iOS 9 in September, alongside the release of the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus, Apple quickly came under fire for a feature called “Wi-Fi…
November 22, 2015 • 4 min readLet’s just call a spade a spade: passwords are among the most irritating things about living in the digital age. Trying to remember even one or two passwords—let alone a different password for every device, site, and service that you use, as is usually recommended—can…
November 20, 2015 • 6 min readApple’s latest mobile and desktop operating systems, iOS 9 and OS X El Capitan, launched in the second half of September. As of October 22nd, Apple has released updates for both operating systems to patch notable security flaws. The updates, iOS 9.1 and OS X…
November 17, 2015 • 3 min readCreating a disk image is a method often used for system backup, and can essentially clone your hard drive by copying the contents and structure of the disk and saving them exactly as they are on your computer. Using Mac’s Disk Utility, you can create…
November 13, 2015 • 4 min readMacs are sleek and slick computers that can run well for years after you take them out of the box. Like all other computers, though, your Mac is not immune to slowdowns, bugs, and other problems, and it’s up to you to keep your machine…
November 6, 2015 • 7 min readNote: This page refers to older versions of Keychain. We have an updated (2021) article about iCloud Keychain features. Even if you don’t use it, you probably already know that the basic purpose of your Mac’s Keychain software is password management. iCloud Keychain is meant…
October 27, 2015 • 5 min readAs computer lingo has evolved over time, the true definition of a “computer virus” has been somewhat lost. Indeed, these days, the term “computer virus” is perhaps most often used as a catch-all for all types of malware—from worms to Trojan Horses to keyloggers and…
October 26, 2015 • 4 min readA Trojan Horse, in the computer world, is a potentially devastating type of malware that disguises itself as something desirable in order to be installed or downloaded onto a computer system. Once the Trojan program has been installed, it goes to work with its true…
October 26, 2015 • 5 min readThe makers of MacScan, a popular malware scanner for Mac OS X machines, maintain a list on their website of the different types of Mac malware that their program helps to protect against. The list, in addition to providing a compelling argument for why to…
October 26, 2015 • 3 min read