Protecting Your Mac: Dec 2024 Security Updates for macOS Sequoia and Older Versions

Keep your Mac secure with the latest updates. Explore the enhancements in macOS Sequoia to safeguard your data and prevent unauthorized access.

Twitter hack was an inside job, sources say

On Wednesday, multiple verified, high-profile Twitter accounts were compromised, including the accounts of Barack Obama, Elon Musk, and Apple. Hackers made tweets requesting charitable donations in the form of Bitcoin, promising to double any contribution made within the next 30 minutes. The tweets were, of course, fraudulent — and the Bitcoin wallet addresses set up to accept the cryptocurrency “donations” belonged to the scammers.

Twitter reacted quickly to the attack, removing the offending tweets, locking down affected accounts, and preventing users from tweeting or resetting their passwords as the company attempted …

Zoom security flaw puts you at risk (even after you uninstall)

Security researcher Jonathan Leitschuh has discovered a major vulnerability in the popular Zoom video conferencing app that could allow malicious actors to turn on your Mac’s camera without your permission.

New Mac Malware Knows When You’re Watching

Security researchers at Intego have discovered a new form of Mac malware—one that shows some surprisingly sneaky behaviour aimed at evading detection by antivirus software and human malware hunters alike.

New Linux Malware Appears, Infects Some Macs Along the Way

While the average user might think their operating system options only go so far as “PC or Mac”, the truth is that there are many more systems running behind the scenes which power a great deal of our digital infrastructure. Linux is one such system, used by hobbyists, computer enthusiasts, and enterprises to power all kinds of servers and back-end systems. Naturally, it follows that there would be malware for Linux too — though it is rarer than most. According to a story making the rounds on ZDNet and BleepingComputer, …

Security Researcher Accidentally Stumbles on a Way for Malware to Click “OK” For you

One of the simplest ways to stay safe and secure on your Mac is to pay close attention to the warnings and prompts that the system often pops up when you’re in the middle of things. Many times, you might even expect these prompts to appear. It’s just macOS’s way of saying, “Hey, are you sure about that?” when something involves sensitive files or has extensive permissions. When you aren’t expecting them, they’re even more important: as your first line of defense, they can be a big red flag …

Apple’s July Security Updates Correct a Host of Problems

It’s that time again: Apple has pushed out a variety of updates for practically all its products, from iTunes for Windows to multiple flavors of macOS, plus the latest version of iOS 11.4. New security updates are also available for iCloud for Windows, Safari, watchOS, and tvOS. What should you know about these updates?

First, iOS 11.4.1 finally includes the much-discussed USB Restricted Mode, a new security feature that aims at making it more difficult for law enforcement agencies and others from using phone-cracking devices to break past a …

Apple Supplements macOS Security Update to Address Wide-Reaching Flaw

Only a few weeks after the recent release of macOS High Sierra 10.13.4, Apple has amended the update by publishing an additional fix under this version number. Addressing a new flaw described as “serious” by the security community, the supplemental version of 10.13.4 addresses a problem in Intel CPUs discovered near the end of April that affects a broad number of devices, including Windows and Linux machines. However, unlike the Spectre and Meltdown flaws that caused much concern due to their so-called “unpatchable” nature, there is a way to …

Apple Pushes Range of Updates for Quality of Life and Security

Alongside Apple’s recent updates to macOS Sierra and OS X El Capitan to address the Spectre and Meltdown vulnerabilities, the final week of January also saw the release of a variety of other incremental updates for most of Apple’s products. Typically, Apple does not disclose detailed descriptions of the security vulnerabilities they fix in these updates, preferring to speak in vague terms to avoid exposing attack vectors that are still open on un-patched systems. However, we do know a little about what went into some of these updates besides …

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, …

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 …