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Twitter recently announced that they will stop allowing the use of SMS-based two-factor authentication for their service, except for Twitter Blue subscribers. This $8 a month service offers a blue checkmark (though not actual verification), the ability to edit tweets, and more. This change will take place on March 30, 2023, and, if you are using SMS-based two-factor authentication (2FA) at that time, Twitter will turn it off, rendering your account less secure.

SMS-based 2FA is not very secure – SMSes can be intercepted, and SIM cloning can allow people to pretend they have your phone – and the other methods available are much more robust. But Twitter’s decision to turn off SMS-based 2FA is dangerous, and their choice to allow it to be used for a price is misguided.

If you have SMS-based 2FA on Twitter, you should change this to use an authenticator app, and there’s one built into macOS, iOS, and iPadOS. Here’s how to do this on Mac, iPhone, or iPad.

Read the rest of the article on The Mac Security Blog.

You may need to reset your Apple devices to factory settings when troubleshooting, or when selling, giving away, or recycling devices. In this article, we look at resetting other Apple devices: the Apple TV, HomePod, AirTags, AirPods (all types), and Beats headphones. All these devices are linked to your Apple ID, and if you don’t reset the Apple TV and HomePod, someone could access your content and data.

Here’s how to reset these devices to factory settings. In another article, we look at how to reset any Mac, iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, or Apple Watch.

Read the rest of the article on The Mac Security Blog.

Occasionally, you need to reset your computing devices to their original factory settings, as they were when you first took them out of the box. You may do this because the device isn’t working as it should: resetting it allows you to reinstall its software from scratch. You may also want to do this if you are selling, giving away, or recycling a device. Even if the device’s storage is encrypted, it’s a good idea to reset it to factory settings so no one can get any information that might be accessible.

It’s important to reset Apple devices correctly, because they have an activation lock, which prevents people from activating them without the Apple ID password. Correctly erasing a device removes the activation lock, so someone else can use the device.

It’s easy to do this for any Apple device. Here’s how to reset any Mac, iPhone, iPad, iPod touch or Apple Watch. In another article, we explain how to reset any Apple TV, HomePod, AirTag, AirPods, or Beats headphones.

Read the rest of the article on The Mac Security Blog.

It was a surprise when Apple discontinued the original HomePod in March 2021, after three years, and it was even more of a surprise in January 2023 when they announced a new model. If Apple stopped selling the device for want of sales, it doesn’t seem to make much sense to bring back a new version that is essentially the same. There are some differences in sound signature and home capabilities, which I will discuss in this article, but if you look at an original and 2nd generation HomePod, side by side, you will not be able to tell the difference.

Read the rest of the article on The Mac Security Blog.

Apple’s Mac mini has always seemed like an outlier in the company’s computer line-up. Originally touted as an inexpensive, stripped-down Mac – it was BYODKM, or “bring your own display, mouse, and keyboard” – the Mac mini was marketed for a while to switchers, people moving from Windows to Mac.

Over the years, the Mac mini languished, and there was a fallow period when it seemed like it wouldn’t be updated. After an update in October 2014, it took four years for the Mac mini to be refreshed. But when Apple released Macs running the company’s own processors, the Mac mini was one of the first to get an M1 version, and, in January 2023, Apple started shipping an M2 model. Available with M2 and M2 Pro processors, the Mac mini is no longer the little computer that could, but now stands as a powerful desktop computer for everyone.

Read the rest of the article on The Mac Security Blog.

Apple has just released macOS 13.2, iOS 16.3, and iPadOS 16.3. One of the new security features is the ability to protect your Apple ID account with a security key, a hardware device that acts as a second factor for two-factor authentication.

This robust addition to the security of your Apple account prevents hackers from getting into your account without the security key, but it’s not for everyone. In this article, I’ll explain why you might want to protect your Apple ID account with a security key, and how to set this feature up.

Read the rest of the article on The Mac Security Blog.

In the latest iteration of Apple’s new in-house processors, the company has announced new versions of its M2 chips: the M2 Pro and the M2 Max. With features similar to the M1 Pro and M1 Max, these processors go much further, with more cores, the ability to use more memory, and lower power consumption.

The company also announced new Macs equipped with these processors: an M2 Mac mini, and 14″ and 16″ MacBook Pros, all taking advantage of these faster, more versatile processors, and even brought back the full-sized HomePod, which was discontinued nearly two years ago.

Read the rest of the article on The Mac Security Blog.

Apple introduced its Crash Detection feature last year, which is available on the iPhone 14, the Apple Watch SE (2nd generation), the Apple Watch Series 8, and the Apple Watch Ultra. This feature works by detecting sudden changes in G-force, along with “Your speed change, combined with the impact force, combined with the pressure change, combined with the sound level.” When triggered, the Crash Detection feature alerts emergency services, telling them you have had an accident and pinpointing your location.

When it works as intended, Crash Detection can potentially save lives. As one example, it reportedly helped one man find his wife, who was in a serious car accident, before an ambulance arrived.

Read the rest of the article on The Mac Security Blog.

Apple introduced the Safari web browser 20 years ago, on January 7, 2003. At the time, Steve Jobs called Safari, “a turbo browser for Mac OS X.” Apple created Safari for speed, calling it the fastest browser for the Mac. Jobs compared it to Internet Explorer, Netscape, and Chimera, showing that Safari was faster. The second reason that Apple created Safari was to innovate; Apple wanted to make the best browser ever. (See Apple’s first web page presenting Safari.)

The browser wars have changed a lot in 20 years. All three of the competitors mentioned above have faded away, and new browsers have become standard. Google’s Chrome is by far the most popular browser, with Safari a distant second. Following these two are Microsoft Edge and Firefox, both with single-digit market share.

Read the rest of the article on The Mac Security Blog.

So much information about you is stored digitally: your identity, your finances, your health, and much more. And all of this information is either stored on or accessible from your computing devices: your Mac, iPhone, and iPad.

There are many threats to your security and privacy when using these devices, and, fortunately, there are many features built into these devices and their operating systems to help keep your data private. But it’s important to know about these features, how to enable them, and how to use them.

In this article, I’ll look at ten things you can do to improve your security and privacy on your Apple devices.

Read the rest of the article on The Mac Security Blog.