The SecureMac Interview: Michael Hartl on technical sophistication

Michael Hartl is an award-winning educator and passionate advocate for technical literacy. He is the author of numerous books on programming, including the Ruby on Rails Tutorial, an introduction to web development which has helped people all around the world learn to code. Michael is also the founder of Learn Enough, an education company devoted to empowering people through the teaching of fundamental technical skills.

We recently spoke with Michael Hartl about the meaning of “technical sophistication”, the importance of technical education for cybersecurity, and more.

Thank …

Understanding macOS Catalina Security and Privacy Features

It’s official: macOS 10.15 Catalina has now been released to the public. 

The latest Mac OS has a number of new features, including several key enhancements to security and privacy. But Apple’s release notes can sometimes be a bit heavy on jargon, leading users to wonder what the latest, greatest macOS updates actually mean!

In this article, we’ll take you on a tour of Catalina’s security and privacy features, explaining their significance and letting you know how they keep you safe.

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Checklist 157: Just Add S4LT

On this edition of The Checklist: The DoorDash data breach, Considering risks around AltStore, And the security side of recent Apple updates.

7 Ways to Prevent Identity Theft

Identity theft can upend your life. It requires a tremendous amount of time and effort to undo the damage—and the aftereffects can be felt for months or even years.

Checklist 156: Watches and Warnings

On this edition of The Checklist: A third-party keyboard warning from Apple, How much is too much consumer protection?, and Apple Watch privacy in an always on world.

Checklist 155: iOS 13 Feature Focus

On this edition of The Checklist: iOS 13’s built-in Cycle Tracker, Privacy and security in Apple Arcade, and Facebook location follow-up.

Red team, blue team: Understanding enterprise cybersecurity roles

If you’re trying to understand how cybersecurity works in an enterprise setting, you’re bound to come across terms like “red team”, “blue team”, and “purple team”.

The terms have their origins in the war games used by militaries to assess and improve their readiness. But what do these color-coded teams mean in the context of cybersecurity? What does each of them do, and how are they different from one another? 

That’s what we’ll cover in this guide to different roles in cybersecurity testing and improvement.

Red team

Red teams, in cybersecurity, assume the role …

iOS 13 security and privacy features

It’s official: iOS 13 is here, come friday. iPhone users will be able to try out all the new features announced at the WWDC keynote in June: Dark Mode, QuickPath swipe typing, a revamped Maps, and more.

In addition to all of this, iOS 13 also offers a number of security and privacy enhancements— some of which are already making waves. We’ll take you through the most important of these in the following article.

Location, location, location

iOS 13 will allow iPhone users increased control over how they share their location data—and …

Checklist 154: Should you put a Ring on it?

On this edition of The Checklist we discuss Warnings from Facebook about warnings about Facebook, ‘Amazon, your neighbours, and the police wanna put a Ring on it’, and When smart things turn dumb.

Four ways mediocre enterprise security can cost you money—and more

Cybersecurity spending worldwide is estimated to reach well over $120 billion in 2019—and most analysts predict steady growth after that. There’s a reason why companies are investing so heavily in security…

Apple Re-Patches Bug That Led to a Public iOS Jailbreak

Over the last couple of weeks, both on the Checklist and on the news section of our site, we’ve been talking about the story of the big iOS jailbreak that was announced in August. This jailbreak was unusual in that it affected the most up-to-date version of iOS available—something we hadn’t seen in quite a while. 

Jailbreaking, as you’ll recall, is the process of removing Apple’s built-in safeguards and limitations on what users and software can do in iOS, essentially allowing them high-level administrative privileges that Apple never intended them to …

Apple announces new iPhones—and the next generation of Apple Watch

This Tuesday, Apple held its much-anticipated media event. Here are a few key takeaways from the big day.

New iPhones!

The big news on Tuesday was, as expected, the announcement of the next generation of iPhones.

Apple is rolling out three new models: the iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro Max. The phones are priced at $699, $999, and $1099, respectively. The new devices will be available for pre-order on Friday and for purchase in Apple Stores by 20 September.

So what’s new? 

Not all that much (with a couple of important …

5 Cybersecurity Tips for Study Abroad Students

Spending a semester or a year abroad can be a life-changing experience for college students. But while living in a strange new place is undoubtedly exciting, it can mean new safety challenges as well—and this includes cybersecurity.

Teaching students about cybersecurity: 7 topics for teachers and parents

Spending a semester or a year abroad can be a life-changing experience for college students. But while living in a strange new place is undoubtedly exciting, it can mean new safety challenges as well—and this includes cybersecurity.

Checklist 153: Grades and Zeroes and Dumb Shoes

On this edition of The Checklist: Grading the Siri “grading” situation, Project Zero’s “iPhone Hack”, and Making the case for shoes that aren’t that smart

5 Ways to Improve Cybersecurity in Schools

As we talked about in part 1 of this piece, the issue of cybersecurity in schools is significant—and doesn’t seem to be getting better.

So what steps can individual parents and concerned adults take to address such a huge problem? 

Here are 5 things you can do to help make schools more secure:

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A teacher’s guide to cybersecurity in the classroom

It seems like cybersecurity issues are in the news all the time. From data breaches at major financial institutions to ransomware attacks on city governments, scarcely a week goes by without another disturbing story of digital disaster.

Checklist 152: Sharing is Scaring

On this edition of The Checklist: Convenience versus privacy on Yelp, Tips for staying digitally safe on campus, and Everybody needs to update their everything!

Do schools have a cybersecurity problem?

We often think of financial institutions, corporations, and governments as the primary targets of cyberattacks. But are schools at risk as well?

The answer, unfortunately, is yes—and the problem is growing.

In this two-part article, we’ll provide you with an overview of the problem, as well as some actionable ideas for dealing with it.

The changing face of education

With state and local education budgets stretched thin, and faced with the challenges of preparing students for an increasingly tech-centric job market, school districts across the country have embraced technological solutions that promise to do …

7 Cybersecurity Tips for College Freshmen

Each fall, millions of college freshmen hit the nation’s campuses to begin some of the most important years of their lives.