With the New Year starting to peek over the horizon, The Checklist is heading to Oz in this week’s discussion — not in terms of “The Wizard of,” though, but “Australia!” There’s a story from Australia this week that has us quite cross, though we also have something to be happy about as Apple starts giving Safari users even more options for safety. We’ll follow that with an update on a story we brought you last week that, while not objectively good, still gives us some good feelings — sometimes …

As we get back into the groove of things in between the major holidays, the security hits keep on coming as it starts to look like there are more than just a few weeds in the “walled garden” that is the iOS App Store. Elsewhere, things aren’t always as they seem either as one of the most fundamental ways we know we’re safe on the web turns out to not be so ironclad. And of course, what would an episode of The Checklist be without a discussion about the latest …

Welcome in to our post-Thanksgiving episode of The Checklist, brought to you by SecureMac.

Holiday weeks are typically where news goes to die — everyone shovels out the stories they don’t really want to talk about in the hopes that no one will notice, being instead too distracted by football and stuffing. Does it always work? Nope. Not when you’ve got people like us with their eyes peeled for the stories worth discussing. This week, we’re bringing you a few stories that those involved might have preferred to keep …

Welcome in to another episode of The Checklist, brought to you by SecureMac. We’re diving right into the headlines again today, looking first at a new improvement to Mac security, plus a couple of the more interesting stories floating around in the world of computer security this week. So, on our list for this week, we’ve got the following stories:

New Macs get physical with their mics
What’s the Internet for again?
Making laws to handle mishandled data

Let’s kick off today’s discussion with a look at an interesting new security feature …

Last week, we brought you a discussion about some of the latest security and privacy features in Apple’s latest major release, macOS Mojave. Not everything is as it should be, though. Sure, Mojave is just fine for the average user – that’s the determination we made last week – but there are a few problems that have appeared in the days and weeks since its public release. This week, we’re talking about those issues and what’s up with them. On our list:

Full Disk Access Gives Up a Little Too …

Say goodbye to High Sierra, and hello to Mojave! On September 24, Apple released the latest version of its core operating system, macOS, bringing with it not only many security improvements but also some new additions for online and offline privacy, as well. For those who tuned in to our in-depth look at the latest features in iOS 12, some of these will sound familiar due to the way Apple has harmonized its digital ecosystem. Other features are new and exciting — but not entirely free from problems. Within …

This week on The Checklist, we’re going on vacation! No, wait — it’s a business trip. Maybe… the house is being fumigated! Whatever the reason is, we have to check into a hotel, leaving our home network behind. Good news, though: the hotel has free Wi-Fi for us to use! The bad news: we weren’t the ones to set up the security for the hotel’s wireless network. We don’t know who’s staying in the room next door, or what they might be up to… and then to top it …

This week, we’re looking at a slew of security issues, from a good old-fashioned data breach, to Apple’s latest way to make sure that the person using your device is really you! Those stories, plus a look at California’s attempts to rein in problems with the Internet of Things, will give us a glimpse into what’s going on in the world of security recently. On our checklist for today’s discussion:

Security concerns break for Newegg
California considers laws for Internet of Things things
Using phone call data to protect your iPhone

If …

This week, we’re taking a bit of a different approach to our show. Instead of presenting you with a list of topics and running down several separate stories, this week we’re focusing in on one major story that’s developed over the last week or two: breaches within Apple’s walled garden, the App Store. If you’ve heard disturbing stories about apps stealing your data and sending it off to China, or rumors about a major tech company (Trend Micro) fumbling the ball and mishandling user data, chances are good you’ve …

In this week’s discussion, we’re looking at some stories that strike a similar tone to several of our recent episodes. With Google figuring out how to use your spending habits to make money, spyware apps that end up being compromised, and a look at the web’s privacy-friendly search engine, we’ve got plenty to tackle today. Here’s what we’ve got on our list:

You’re still the product
Your kids are the byproduct
A look at how things are going for DuckDuckGo

Have you ever heard the saying, “If you aren’t paying for a …

Last week, we spent most of our discussion shaking our heads. This week, we’ve got an update on one of those stories, a look at a frankly quite scary USB device that doubles as malware, and a look at just how much the government doesn’t like apps that let you encrypt all your conversations. As we head into the “dog days of summer,” the security threats and the big stories keep adding up — but maybe we should be thankful we don’t have a multi-million-person data leak to discuss …

This week, we’ve dubbed our episode the “head shaking edition” because each of our stories today left us shaking our heads for one reason or another. From Google quietly looking over your shoulder to Comcast fumbling the ball with yet another big leak of user data, there’s plenty to discuss — so today we’re diving right in to our discussion. Items we’ll be ticking off the list as we go:

Google’s game of hide and seek
A look at behavioral biometrics
Comcast tells 26.5 million people, “Relax!”

Do you try to stay …

It has been a long time coming, but we are proud to celebrate the milestone achievement of 100 episodes of The Checklist, brought to you by SecureMac! We’d like to take this moment to say a big “thank you” to our listeners, especially those who’ve been here from the start. With such a big milestone, it seems appropriate that one of the top stories we have on our list this week concerns another gargantuan trove of personal data— and chances are, at least some of your information will probably …