" Here is an article about counterfeit Apple products seized in a shopping mall in Hanover, Maryland. As the article states, it's a good idea to only purchase Apple products from Apple or a reputable, authorized reseller," Jim Hamm informs us.
Do NOT Install MacKeeper
Here's an important notice from John Carter: "It was just brought to my attention by Betsy Barnes that MacKeeper is one of the apps that you do not want to install on your Mac.
"The reasons are various. It has been described as highly invasive malware, but this is probably because it pops up in your face every time you drag an application to the trash (the preferred method is to use AppCleaner to delete an application), and then often after dragging anything to the trash.
"Malware is anything that is hostile, intrusive, or annoying. So if being reminded that MacKeeper can clean up your computer is annoying, then MacKeeper is malware. By this logic, Apple's Notification Center can be annoying and therefor it is malware.
"MacKeeper does this as a way of 'helping' you keep your computer running lean and fast. Does it really?
"A simple query in Safari returns dozens of complaints about MacKeeper. For one user who bought a MacBook Pro and then installed MacKeeper, he started having freezes and crashes. A scan of the logs clearly showed MacKeeper as involved in every crash and freeze (See the full report here.)
"Additionally, one user has attempted to get a refund and is still waiting for it after being told three times he will get it."
John concludes, "For what it's worth, I am no longer even suggesting that MacKeeper be used on a Mac. Use AppCleaner to remove apps and the rest can be trusted to just dumping it into the Trash.
For further reading, see this article on "Do not install MacKeeper."
Avoiding Problems With Passwords
Do you know the Do's and Don'ts of secure passwords? Check this out: here is an interesting article on passwords recommended to us by Jim Hamm.
Hacker Conference Coming
"Hackers Reveal Nasty New Car Attacks -- " is how the title begins. The story is to appear in the August 12, 2013 issue of Forbes. See the article posted here http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2013/07/24/hackers-reveal-nasty-new-car-attacks-with-me-behind-the-wheel-video/
Using the car’s "OnStar-like cellular connection, Bluetooth bugs, a rogue Android app that synched with the car’s network from the driver’s smartphone or even a malicious audio file on a CD in the car’s stereo system" a lot of real trouble is possible. Read what's up as the Defcon hacker conference is coming in Las Vegas next month.
FBI E-Scam
Jim Hamm passes along a warning, "There have been reports of a recent email scam, presumably from the FBI, that threatens to lock up your computer unless you pay a 'ransom.' You can read more about this scam here. The malware comes from a website to your browser via Javascript, and can infect both a Mac and a PC (ie., OS X and Windows).
"If you're using Safari, you can get rid of this scam by quitting Safari, and hold the shift key down when reopening Safari — this will prevent previous windows or tabs from reopening."
Jim winds up this warning to us with this: "On the FBI website you'll note there is a link wherein one can report email spam: spam@uce.gov. This goes to the Federal trade Commission. Wonder what they will do with it? You don't suppose they enjoy reading spam, do you?...(grin)."
Adobe Flash Caution
This is just in from Jim Hamm, "FWIW, a few moments ago I got an alert on a web page (a music-listening site) that I needed to update to Flash 12 immediately -- important! I looked at the website for this notice and it said -- as I recall -- "Quixter", or something like that. Anyway, I didn't click the update link but instead went to Adobe's website and had them check the Flash I had installed on the browser I was using at the time (Opera Next). Flash was up to date.
"Interesting how creatively the hackers use Adobe Flash to try and get a hook into one's computer. I don't ever click any update link that comes in a pop-up in the browser -- I always go directly to the website." Jim
( OK, did you know what FWIW means? Look up www.InternetSlang.com/ )
More on Malware
"Here's an article on yet another way malware is attempting to infect our computers," says Jim Hamm. And that gets our attention.
" The original article was in French, and Google was used to translate it to English. And here is an article from F-Secure Lab (also originally in French) providing further details.
"I haven't read of any alerts here in the U.S. about this specific malware, so this is just for info and something to be aware of."
iPhone: Lost! Then, Found!
John Carter left his iPhone on a plane! There's a happy ending! There's something for us to learn from this!
"Suppose your iPhone gets lost (you left it on the plane). Frantically, you go online to iCloud.com and configure the iPhone to be erased if anyone attempts to use the iPhone. This seems to be the best way to protect your information, right? Wrong! The iPhone will only be erased when someone attempts to connect to the Internet — or so the story goes. So, if they never access the Internet, they can open Contacts and browse any file on the iPhone at will.
"So maybe the next choice is to lock the iPhone. But this choice also only comes into effect when the person attempts to access the Internet. So even this isn't the best way to protect your iPhone.
"What's left? Well, you should have set the iPhone to require a passcode as soon as the iPhone is turned on.
"In my case, I did recently leave my iPhone on the plane. It was found and returned. What made it possible to be returned to me was that I did NOT have a passcode set to lock my phone, and the baggage claim person opened the phone and did something to discover that I was the owner of the phone and sent me an email message."
What a relief, read on! John has more to say, "But, I had already gone online to icloud.com and set the phone to be erased when the Internet was accessed. Fully believing that my iPhone would be erased as soon as I tried to get on the Internet, I was totally surprised that it didn't happen!
"Bottom line is, as my wife says, don't believe what you see. Protecting your information in a lost phone is only going to happen if you have set a passcode to lock the phone. Add a label to your phone on the outside that identifies you as the owner and no one needs to open the phone to find out how to contact you. Better yet, have your contact information engraved on the back side of the phone."
Warning About Internet Crooks
Alert and aware! Ward Stanke forwards a message from a Mac writer who details how thieves nearly switched his Social Security payments to a dummy bank account. Read and heed! Jerry King, the president of the Naples MacFriends User Group in Naples, Florida has written a Mac 411 article for the local newspaper titled "Internet Crooks Nearly Rerouted My Social Security Payments." It was published May 23. See the full article here.
Warning About Smartphone Photos
If you take photos with your smart phone and post them online you face a real risk of trouble. This 4 minute video is a must for you, your kids, your grandkids. Ginger Carlson found this website http://www.youtube.com/embed/N2vARzvWxwY?rel=0 and comments, "Everyone needs to see it."
Password Hacking
"Here is an article, admittedly somewhat lengthy and nerdy, about how hackers can make mincemeat out of your passwords so easily." Jim Hamm goes on to elaborate, "After reading the article, I know my passwords are, oh, so vulnerable. I bet yours are, too. I'm thinking about buying something like 1Password, or another strong password generator program, and redoing all my passwords.
"If you've got a password program you like, let me know if you would."
Are You Checking Time Machine?
"If you're using a Mac, chances are you're using Time Machine. It's nice that Apple provides a backup system that's easy to use. However, have you checked that Time Machine is really backing up? No? Well, I haven't either. Here's a Blog from a guy that didn't check either.
"Now might be a good time to verify that Time Machine is working correctly. What a pain it would be not to be able to recover -- in case of a hard drive failure -- all that important 'stuff' you've saved over the years."
And this is the little nudge from Jim Hamm that we probably all need!
Cloud: Pro & Con
Here's a risk that Jim Hamm describes, "Storing 'stuff' in the Cloud has its advantages, but also a real risk, too. Take a read on this article where Google just shut an individual off from his Cloud storage. He hadn't done anything wrong to violate any of Google's policies, but someone or something at Google thought he had."
(Scroll down and consider the logic of those 95 comments already posted on that site.)
"Trying to contact someone at Google to find out why this happened is a lost cause. Fortunately, this guy had friends that worked at Google and they ultimately were able to help him. But thee and me? I think we'd be out of luck if Google shoved us off the Cloud.
"Which brings me to Gmail. For quite some time I've used Google's web-based Gmail for all my email storage. i no longer download anything to my computers or iPad -- I do everything online. What if Google suddenly shut me off from my Gmail account? All of my emails -- both read and unread -- are stored there, not on my computer. Not a pleasant thought to contemplate. I'd survive, but what a pain.
Here's Jim's conclusion, "I would never store anything of value in the Cloud. I much prefer an external hard drive for my extra storage. Could something like this happen with a Microsoft or Apple Cloud storage? I'd guess it's possible. Just something for you to think about when you use the Cloud."
Public Wi-Fi Precautions
Stay safe when you're using public Wi-Fi. Jim Hamm points out several important precautions to take.
1. Don't make online purchases or access your bank account.
2. Switch your passwords. Use a different password for each of your online accounts.
3. Look for the locked padlock in the address bar. That means the info submitted to that site is encrypted. But still be cautious.
4. Turn off file sharing on your computer.
Malware Info We Need to Know
Ward Stanke, our PMUG Ambassador, sends important info on Mac malware: "I saw this post to the Apple Users Group Mailing List from Randy Singer (co-author of The Macintosh Bible, 4th, 5th and 6th editions).
Randy said (this is a direct quote): "If Mac users want to have all of their questions about Macintosh malware answered authoritatively, I recommend that you have a look at this Web site created and maintained by Thomas Reed: http://www.reedcorner.net/mmg/
"I trust Thomas Reed and what he has to say because he isn't biased, in that he isn't trying to sell anti-virus software as most malware reporting sites are, and he isn't a Windows user inappropriately extrapolating from that platform when speaking about the Macintosh.
"There is a companion comprehensive list of all of the malware which exists for Mac OS X, which is kept meticulously updated, here: http://www.reedcorner.net/mmg-catalog/ On the far left of this list each piece of malware is rated for its 'threat level.'"
A quote from Thomas' site: "However, it is important to keep in mind that Mac OS X already does an admirable job of protecting against malware. At this time, there is no known malware capable of infecting a Mac running a properly-updated version of Mac OS X 10.6 or later, with all security settings left at the default (at a minimum)."
Legal to Post or Not?
If you received the April issue of CostCo Connection magazine in the mail today you’ve seen “The Copyright Quandry” and the sidebar, “Copyright Myths.” Both give very important legal info about posting photos, copying from a book, magazine, or movie. These are facts that our kids and grandkids need to know. Watch for the online copy of April or see if that's the magazine on the rack as you go out the door.
The March issue is http://www.costcoconnection.com/connection/201303#pg1 On page 13 it has an interesting article on the “cloud.”
Evernote Breach
Here's what David Passell passes along today, "I saw this news item, and also received an e-mail from Evernote (which was filtered by cableone's spam filter). I think I used it briefly. Nothing will organize my stuff:). http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-21644317
The article says Evernote acts like an online personal organiser, with users able to save data such as video clips, images, web pages, notes and itineraries in an external storage system commonly known as the cloud.
How to Isolate Java
Jim Hamm grabs our attention with important info on Java. "in case you didn't see it, here is another article discussing Java, and how to remove or disable Java in your browser of choice. Some time ago I had disabled Java in the three browsers I use: Safari, Firefox and Chrome. I happened to be using Firefox when reading this article, so I thought I'd check the Java plug-in. Ouch! Sure enough, it was enabled again. How, I don't know. Perhaps when the browser itself is updated. I immediately disabled Java again.
That's probably why the author of this article recommends removing Java -- because somehow it can become enabled again, which is not a good thing from a security standpoint. Following is a summary from the article on how to disable Java.”
How to isolate Java
Isolating Java means leaving it on your Mac, but removing it from your browser except when you want it to run. Apple now does this by default for all Macs (10.6 and later) and will re-isolate it after about a month even if you've turned it back on. Isolating Java is a bit more complex now that Apple has removed the Java preferences utility from Lion and Mountain Lion.
If you run Java 6 (the Apple supplied version), you need to restrict it on each of your browsers. In Google Chrome, type chrome://plugins in the address bar and click the link to disable Java. In Safari, go to Safari > Preferences and uncheck Enable Java in the Security pane. In Firefox go to Tools > Add Ons > Plugins and uncheck Java Plug-In.
Concern About Illegal Patent Applications
Describing some illegitimate patent applications in the software and Internet fields, and claiming that these patents cause profound harm, an organization, Electronic Frontier Foundation, has been formed to document the issues. Their website gives more info. https://www.eff.org/patent-busting
David Passell found this, and comments, "Here is something completely different that I stumbled upon that might interest some of the crusaders among us."
"Pintsized Trojan" on Mac
Keeping us alert, Jim Hamm passes along this, "Although the 'pintsized trojan' (as it's called) hasn't been released yet to cause trouble for your Mac, you might take a read on this article http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/pintsized-trojan-bypasses-macs-gatekeeper-feature to be aware of what might be coming."