This week on the Checklist, we cover:

Deeper analysis of Covid-19 scam domainsBank whose letters set off alarm bellsPossible GDPR problem for Germany’s Apple Stores

Coronavirus scam sites: a taxonomy

For the past couple of months, we’ve covered stories related to Covid-19 scams and security threats. One thing we noted early on was a surge in domain name registration for new websites related to the pandemic. While many of these were completely legitimate, initial research indicated that an unusual number of these new domains were malicious. 

In an effort to better understand the threat …

This week on the Checklist, we sit down with a special guest to talk about passwords — plus we’ll update you on Google’s efforts to build a safer smart home.

Passwords for humans

If you’ve listened to the Checklist before, you know that the importance of good passwords is a favorite theme of ours — because it’s such a fundamental aspect of digital security and privacy.

This week, we sat down to talk with Bart Busschots, creator of xkpasswd, a web-based tool that helps users generate strong, unique passwords that are actually easy …

This week, we’ll highlight some big decisions about mobile contact tracing from around the world — and we’ll also let you know what’s going on over at Apple (spoiler: get ready to update iOS).

This week, a special guest talks about the Apple/Google contact tracing tool (and the one proposed by France and Germany), plus we’ll share an important warning about a new text messaging scam.

This week, Ken looks at the Apple/Google team-up on contact tracing, Apple’s use of Maps data to fight the spread of COVID-19, and a story about brand phishing that’s not coronavirus related. Mostly.

Apple has released updates for a number of apps and OSes over the past couple of weeks. In this Checklist, we’ll take you through the most important of these — covering new features as well as security fixes.

The Checklist is taking a break this week, but with all that’s going on in the world, and with so many new changes to the way we live and work, we wanted to point you to some resources that can help keep you safe and happy.

The world is changing so fast that it can be hard to keep up. This week on the Checklist, we’ll take a look at how life is going to be different in the weeks and months ahead — and what you can do to stay safe, productive … and happy.

Security and privacy in a pandemicCybersecurity for remote workersTips from two decades of working at homeWorst-case scenario preparedness

Keeping your data locked down

The current Covid-19 pandemic is a global crisis, and public and private sector organizations are responding accordingly. In the United …

This Checklist is all about Covid-19, the severe new form of coronavirus which has recently reached pandemic status. We’ll cover several safety issues related to the virus — both digital and physical

Checklist 176 is all about privacy, security, and the little startup that may have stolen your face.

On this week’s Checklist, we’ll talk about Apple’s moves to improve web security. We’ll look at what Google is doing to make downloads safer. And last but not least, we’ll give you a quick intro to data breach prevention.

This week on the Checklist, we’ll start off with a big list of tips to keep your iPhone safe and happy … and then we’ll take a new look at Google’s Nest smart home devices.

On this week’s Checklist, we’ll talk about the malware that’s infected millions of Macs worldwide, a social media service with data privacy issues, and the most common security problems facing startups.

The Checklist is taking a brief hiatus, but will return next week with a new show. In the meantime, check out these Checklists from the archives.

On this week’s Checklist, we’ll revisit the issues with Amazon’s Ring, take another look at iCloud backups, and hit the highlights from Apple’s latest round of OS updates.

On this week’s Checklist, we’ll see how private your iCloud backups really are; we’ll examine the strange story of how the richest person in the world got hacked; and finally, we’ll look at a technology that promises a better way to do 2FA.

This week on the Checklist:

Considering iCloud and end-to-end encryptionA WhatsApp bromance gone badIf you’ve got an iPhone, here’s FIDO!

 
What happens in your iCloud…

We’ve known for a while that iCloud backup data isn’t protected by end-to-end encryption — meaning that encryption keys aren’t stored only on the user’s device, …

On this week’s Checklist, we’ll take a look at someone else’s checklist of security tips, plus we’ll talk about what happens when companies that don’t specialize in security decide to get into the security business.

It’s the first Checklist of 2020, and we’re starting things off with some important privacy news from the great state of California. We’ll also discuss (another) potential issue with Amazon’s Ring doorbell surveillance camera. And finally, we’ll leave you with a decidedly low-tech security tip that you’ll want to remember all year long!

The Checklist is taking a little holiday break this week, but we’ll be back on the 9th of January with a new podcast. Until then, we’d like to invite you to check out these classic Checklists you might have missed, especially as they touch on topics that have been in the news of late! 

In what follows, we’ll let you know what’s been going on in the world of cybersecurity for the past week, and then we’ll point you to a Checklist where you can learn more.

This Best of the Checklist …