The Safe Mac

Category: news-favorites

  • Apple introduces two-factor authentication

    Back in August of last year, a journalist named Mat Honan had his Apple ID hacked, allowing the hackers to remotely wipe all his devices and trash all his iCloud data. Two weeks ago, Apple introduced a new two-factor authentication method for Apple IDs that would prevent future use of the technique used against Mr. Honan.…

  • What is Gatekeeper?

    With the recent news coverage of the Pintsized malware, which infected high-profile targets like Facebook, Apple and Microsoft, much has been said in passing about Gatekeeper. Specifically, a number of news reports have mentioned how Pintsized was able to get past Gatekeeper. Unfortunately, these reports have mentioned this fact without any real understanding of what…

  • Do I need a firewall?

    Firewalls have always been poorly understood, even by knowledgeable people. With the recent upsurge in Mac malware, there has been a lot of questionable advice circulating, some of which related to firewalls. People are recommending firewalls for avoiding malware, blocking hackers, preventing spam and any number of other things.  Some of these recommendations have some…