Apple’s iOS 17, released last week, contains several interesting privacy and security features. Here’s a quick overview. Lockdown Mode Apple introduced Lockdown Mode in iOS 16 which was designed to protect iPhones against “extremely rare and highly sophisticated cyber attacks”. While Apple didn’t mention the NSO Group’s Pegasus by name, they did say that the …
[UPDATED 2/25/2023 for Eufy privacy issue and response] The holiday shopping season is once again upon us, so it’s time to update my annual gift guide! There are lots of great tech toys and fun online services, but many of them can make you vulnerable to hacking attacks or mine your personal data. What you …
For those of you who are not familiar with what I’m about to describe, you’re probably going to think I’m off my rocker. But I’m here to tell you: your smart TV is almost surely spying on you. I’m not just talking about the apps you’re running, which of course are spying on you. I’m …
Last Monday Apple released a big update to its flagship mobile operating system, iOS (the software that runs your iPhone). Today I’ll give you a run down of the new security and privacy features in iOS 16. (There are tons of other features, too – if you want to check out the full list, click …
All software has bugs. Therefore, the less software you have, the fewer bugs you have. In other words, the fewer applications and plugins you have installed, the fewer the opportunities there are for your computer or smartphone to be hacked. It’s a mathematical certainty. In the cybersecurity realm, we call this “reducing your attack surface”. …
Convenience is often at odds with security and privacy. In other words, we often need to add some friction to our lives in order to be more secure and private. There are many inconveniences we’ve all learned to live with in the physical world. We lock our houses when we leave. We hide valuables in …
Your cell phone provider is also an internet service provider (ISP). Whenever you’re not using WiFi to connect to the internet, you’re using your cellular data plan. That means that your cellular provider has a front row seat to viewing everything you do on the internet. This mobile tracking includes all the apps you have …
[Note: see related podcast and see affiliate stuff at the right] [UPDATED: Jan 8, 2022] When I wrote up last year’s list, I didn’t expect we’d still be dealing with a pandemic in 2021. And yet, here we are. But the best gift you could give this year – to yourself and those around you …
Apple just released a major update to it’s iPhone operating system: iOS 15. (Note that iPads will get many of these same features, too, from iPadOS 15.) As usual, there are tons of cool and useful features, but given my bailiwick, I’m going to focus on the security and privacy aspects. In this article, I’m …
