Keeping your information secure from prying eyes.
Are you retiring an older Mac that has a mechanical, spinning hard drive in it? If your Mac is running OS X 10.11 then continue reading this article. Below are instructions on how you can securely erase the Mac’s hard drive before you donate your Mac or sell it.
Read moreHave you received an email which starts off by listing one of your passwords and then goes on to indicate that a video recording of you watching an adult content video which will be sent to your friends unless you pay a few thousand dollars in bitcoin? Please don’t believe everything you read. Emails like … Read more
Do you want to encrypt an external hard drive or USB flash drive connected to your Mac? Encrypting the drive will protect the data on that drive. Each time that drive is connected to another Mac you’ll need to enter a password before the drive is available and before you can view or edit the … Read more
[Update Nov 2023: Sound Support no longer uses LogMeIn for remote access to client Macs.] Are you one of my clients? Do you have LogMeIn installed so I can remotely access your Mac to provide you with remote support? If so, a recent update to LogMeIn requires you to grant it greater access to your … Read more
Are you confused by messages from Malwarebytes about the need to update or upgrade? If so, you’re not alone. My general recommendation is that you always want to update Malwarebytes, but you probably don’t need to upgrade it.
Read moreDo some legitimate emails that you receive end up on your spam folder? You may be able to prevent this from happening by putting the sender’s email address on your email server’s allow list. Before we talk about how to do that, let’s start by reviewing the general process of how emails get identified as … Read more
Do you need an anti-virus app on your iPhone? The short answer is no, there is very little risk that your iPhone could get infected with malicious software, like a virus. However, one should continue to be vigilant and concerned about the security of one’s phone and the personal data on it. There are a few … Read more
Are you prepared to handle the theft of your Mac? Unfortunately, I had to test my own disaster recovery procedures when my laptop was stolen this past week. In situations like this, I believe there are two priorities. First, is the data on the Mac inaccessible? Second, can one get up and running on another Mac with … Read more
Have you used MalwareBytes to remove malware from your Mac? Malwarebytes does a great job of removing harmful software from your Mac, but it sometimes leaves bits and pieces of the malware on your Mac. These remnants are not harmful to your Mac, but I like to get rid of them anyway. If you are one … Read more
iOS 11, released in October, 2017, adds an Emergency SOS feature, which also gives you a way to disable your TouchID feature. Disabling TouchID could be desired in the event of a mugging or an arrest.
Read moreYou are the weakest link in your computer’s security! Please keep reading this important Tech Tip. If you’re not already aware of this fact, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the easiest way for a hacker to get into your Mac is through you. Tricking you into divulging information, installing software … Read more
Please watch out for tech support phone scams. There are two types of scams. The first type are scammers who call you at home and fraudulently claim to be from some group like Apple or Microsoft. The second type are groups that you mistakenly call when you’re seeking technical support.
Read more[Update Nov 2023: As of 2021, Adobe has ended support for the Flash Player plugin. Please uninstall it if it’s still on your Mac.] Please be aware that some pop-up windows indicating that you need to update the Adobe Flash Player on your Mac could be bogus. Yup, that’s right. We live in a messy complex world and … Read more
Have you forgotten or misplaced your Airport or Time Capsule passwords? If so, you should consider using the Soft Reset feature that Apple builds into Airports and Time Capsules. You could also review my previous Tech Tip about retrieving your Airport password from your Keychain which could save you from having to perform a Soft Reset. I should … Read more
Would you like to encrypt a PDF? Encrypting a PDF can be handy if you want to protect sensitive data contained in a PDF that you store on your Mac, or before you share the PDF via email, Dropbox or via some other means. Encrypting a PDF can be accomplished easily using Apple’s Preview application … Read more
Do you want to either sell or retire a Mac that has a solid state hard drive (aka flash storage)? If so, it is prudent to securely erase the hard drive beforehand. Here are instructions on how to do this. This procedure will make all of your personal data inaccessible. There are two stages of this process. In phase … Read more
The days of Mac users blithely using their computers and not worrying about security issues are gone. Over the past few years the amount of malware that targets Mac users has proliferated. (Malware is a portmanteau of malicious software.) Your best protection against malware is to have a good backup system in place and to be cautious about what files … Read more
Do you ever get emails from a real company like Apple, HP, Adobe, Bank of America, Chase or PayPal that look real, but you’re not sure if they are legitimate emails? If so, here are two things you can look at in order to determine their authenticity.
Read moreBe aware of a myriad of bogus pop-ups that might appear when you are visiting web sites. Typically these pop-ups contain messages that indicate that your computer has been compromised or some sort of security issue has been detected. Often the message include a phone number to call to get assistance. Furthermore, these pop-up windows are … Read more
Has your Mac suddenly become slow or started having trouble doing the usual daily tasks? If so, you might have some accidentally installed app that isn’t helpful to your Mac. Not all of these apps are malicious, but for the sake of simplicity, I’ll call them malware here. Malware behavior ranges anywhere from giving annoying pop … Read more