security & privacy

I recently went to more complex account passwords on my Mac but my spouse has balked at this and also doesn't like using touch ID. She mainly does email, web browsing and social media. I read up on guest accounts but as all information is deleted upon exit that would not be appropriate. I'm...

The title says it all. The strangest problem. I tried to add programs to Full Disk Access. Nothing worked. Despite trying to add a program, it never showed up. Reboot solved the problem and all programs listed in Full Disk Access now appear as expected.

Came across an interesting Twitter thread about how security conscious Apple’s M1 is relative to Intel. The thread continues for awhile, has multiple sub threads, and is an interesting read overall. Simplified TLDR: basically while no system is perfect, security is much tighter in Apple’s...

Why does my Mac lock me out when I step away from the keyboard? The screen turns off. It only turns back on when I hit Cmd + Shift + R. It takes me to a lock screen with the default OS background.

Here is an easy way on macOS to access other user’s files — even when you are not an admin: Create an APFS snapshot of the entire disk (or find a pre-existing Time Machine local snapshot). Mount the snapshot with owners disabled. Go have a blast browsing files that are not yours. For use with...

Whenever I pay my Apple Card statement, the confirmation email is sent to the original email used when I set up the account. I would like to change this email. I called Apple Card support (Goldman Sachs) a few times and was told it could not be changed. To my disbelief, they said I would need to...

I just discovered this and would consider it a huge security risk if the app is doing anything with the pasted data in the background. Basically, I had copied something to the clipboard in Safari. I then opened the “Geometry Lite” app and caught a glimpse of a paste operation, see attached...

Hey Folks I'm old and did a dumb thing and need advise what to do! While at a hotel I used my computer on the hotel wifi and even left it in sleep over night with auto backup on. I have FileVault on, and am going through my passwords and changing them. I have been reading about changing my...

In the process of factory resetting a couple of iPhones to sell, i came across a number of tools claiming to be able to recover deleted data from iPhones. Is this actually possible? Some of them are quite expensive, so i presume they must offer something. As i have had everything from credit...

Hello! I have just installed Catalina. There are a lot of security warnings... and now I am wondering how to keep my passwords etc safe from applications that ask for access to all my folders. e.g. Adobe, Zoom and Teams Meetings want access to Documents and Downloads and Desktop. If they have...

In the Security and Privacy system preference, in the Privacy tab, there is a Files and Folders item and it says "Allow the apps below to access your files and folders." Can someone explain what this means? Programs that are not even in the list, such as Pixelmator, can open files. Programs that...

Don't know where else to ask this so posting here. I'm seeing headlines all over about this SolarWinds Orion hack, which is apparently serious. No idea if Apple uses any of their products but apparently a huge number of telecom companies, etc., use them. Whether for this incident or future...

Did you guys read this article over at 9to5Mac? (Link) Here is the original article by the researcher (Link) I am pretty concerned with the changes that have been made in Big Sur, which could potentially allow any bad actors to spy on our location and app usage. According to this researcher...

I am going to sell two Macbooks that are now hosting a bunch of sensitive info. i am aware that certain apps can recover deleted data, even after a factory reset, and want to prevent that from happening to my computers. What are the most reliable and yet not overly time-consuming ways of...

On one of my system the Security & Privacy panel cannot be opened. I cannot approve extensions for Parallels or any other setting. I logged out of my iCloud account and then back in. I tried systemextensionsctl reset etc. etc. If fails for all accounts. I have reinstalled once and it did not...