Earlier this week the CEO of an anti-virus company wrote a "guest editorial" on a popular technology website, saying it was time for Apple to "open up" and — wait for it — allow anti-virus software on the iPhone and iPad. The premise is self-serving and the headline spit-take inducing, and it's absolutely not worth rewarding negative attention seeking with attention. However, it is...
Apple has updated its malware definitions for OS X so as to defend Macs against a botnet that allowed a piece of malware called Mac.BackDoor.iWorm to install on systems. iWorm had made its way onto 17,000 machines by the time it was disclosed last week. Once on a user's system, the malware could install other pieces of malware, in addition to stealing sensitive data. Apple has now taken...
Apple has just released a new important software security update to patch the new Shellshock vulnerability for its Mac systems. The update is now available through Apple and is titled the OS X bash Update 1.0 download. There are separate downloads, depending on which version of the OS X operating system your Mac is currently running, whether it's Lion, Mountain Lion, or Mavericks....
Software is buggy. Humans write and test software and humans are imperfect; as a result, so is software. This is the reality of software and should come as a surprise to nobody. What can be surprising are the kind of bugs we actually see make their way out into the wild. We've seen two very prominent examples this week. The first was the release of iOS 8.0.1 on Wednesday which broke...
The iMore show brings you everything you need to know about the week in iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple! On this episode We've got the new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus and we're sharing our first thoughts. We're also talking iOS 8.0.1 update woes, #bendgate, shellshock, and the best apps and games for your new phone...
Word is spreading on info security websites that there's a vulnerability in a Unix program called Bash. Bash, or Bourne-Again Shell, is standard issue on the Mac, and at this writing, the latest version of OS X — 10.9.5 — has a version that's vulnerable to this new exploit. Should Mac users be concerned about this new security issue? Sure. Should we panic? No, and here's why... What...
Another day, another apocalyptic prognostication of computer security doom, this time focusing on the omnipresent USB connection. It's called 'BadUSB', and it's a malware proof-of-concept created by security researchers Karsten Nohl and Jakob Lell that exploits a flaw in and resides in the firmware that controls the basic function of USB devices. The researchers claim that it's not a...
The Music app in iOS 7 didn't just come with an all new design, it came with an all new bug that's giving some of us trouble with deleting songs. What's supposed to happen is that you swipe a song, it brings up the delete button, and with a tap the song is gone. Unfortunately, for iTunes in the Cloud, that's sometimes not the case. The good news is all iTunes in the Cloud (and iTunes...
If you're concerned about iOS security or OS X security and are still wondering whether or not Apple services and software are affected by the Heartbleed vulnerability found in OpenSSL, Apple has now given an official statement on the matter.
OpenSSL is popular open source encryption software used all over the Internet. It's been in the news a lot lately, with a lot of dire warnings about what a newly discovered bug means for your personal data. Is it a threat to OS X security or iOS security? Do you need to be worried about your Mac, iPhone or iPad being vulnerable?