Ransomware is a form of malicious software (or malware) that, once it’s taken over your computer, threatens you with harm, usually by denying you access to your data. The attacker demands a ransom from the victim, promising — not always truthfully — to restore access to the data upon payment. Ransomware attacks are typically carried… Continue Reading
What can I do about all these robocalls? The most common recommendation from security experts is to simply not answer your phone from numbers you do not recognize. That said, you’re probably still receiving voice messages that are clearly from robotic electronic recordings – robocalls. There are a number of apps you can run on… Continue Reading
Two different scams have become very prevalent in the last two weeks, with scammers escalating their tactics, and both of the scams seemingly involve Apple or AppleCare Tech Support. Both are bogus and both use social engineering to trick and scare you into doing some thing they want you to do. The so-called AppleCare Tech Support… Continue Reading
Phishing is the attempt to obtain sensitive information such as usernames, passwords, and credit card details (and money), often for malicious reasons, by disguising as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication (like an email). According to the 2013 Microsoft Computing Safety Index, the annual worldwide impact of phishing could be as high as US$5… Continue Reading
(Update: You now have the ability to download a copy of all your current data on Facebook. This article from macobserver.com shows you how.) As you may already know, there’s been a security meltdown at Facebook, thanks to a company called Cambridge Analytica. As many as 50 million users learned that their social media data was… Continue Reading
MacFinesse reported on the Equifax data breach back in October 2017. Just this week, the Chicago Tribune wrote this article as an update: Equifax hack put more info at risk than consumers knew (This is a brief excerpt from that article) The Equifax data breach exposed more of consumers’ personal information than the company first… Continue Reading
Malware, a shortened combination of the words malicious and software, is a catch-all term for any sort of software designed with malicious intent. That malicious intent is often the theft of your private information. Or it can be the creation of a backdoor to your computer so someone can gain access to it without your… Continue Reading
Apple has released macOS High Sierra 10.13.2 Supplemental Security Update, along with Safari 11.0.2 for Mac OS X El Capitan 10.11.6 and macOS Sierra 10.12.6. These updates mitigate the Meltdown and Spectre security vulnerabilities you may have read about in the news lately, and are recommended for all eligible Mac users to install. The Mac security software… Continue Reading
(For your Mac, not your iPhone) Apple this week released the 10.13.2 version of Mac OS High Sierra. This update contains many bug fixes and it addresses several severe security flaws originally introduced with this new Mac OS system. Since Apple starting pushing this update out on users in November, you’ve probably been seeing a… Continue Reading
Ahh, passwords: just that word can cause dread in the hearts of even the bravest computer user. But why should that be? Because we live in a crazy world where some people spend their days trying to leach off of others. And we all have things we’d rather be doing than dealing with passwords. Any… Continue Reading