Recent security breaches at online companies large and small has been making the news and becoming disturbingly routine. Now we’re starting to get spam that shows a real password from these old security breaches. It would be handy to know all of the places where I’ve used this old password so I can update it. Since I use the macOS and iOS keychain to store these passwords across all of my devices I wanted to search all of my saved logins but Keychain Access doesn’t let us do that.
Sync Bookmarks Across Browsers
Testing web pages in different browsers is part of my daily routine and I start with Safari, Chrome, and Firefox. It’s handy to have the same set of bookmarks always at-the-ready no matter which browser I am using at the moment. This used to be done simply with the Xmarks browser extension but after that service went away I could not find a simple replacement. With a little work you can use iCloud bookmark syncing to do this for you.
Spot the Malware Challenge
As somewhat related to last month’s Malware checklist, I thought this would be a good follow-up about spotting malware on an infected site. Maybe yours.
Malware 2018
Someone very close to me who is computer adept was tricked into downloading and running a sneaky Flash installer that actually installed malware. This exercise was a good time to review my checklist for finding and fixing this situation. I was pleasantly surprised to discover some new useful tools and updated my checklist for 2018.
Don’t think you are immune because you know more than others. If your computer is connected to the internet and you use a web browser it can happen to you, especially if you use Outlook (aka Lookout!).
FileVault Undo
When I upgraded to High Sierra, I thought it was time to try a semi-clean install since I had done many years of upgrades. After wiping the drive and restoring from a Time Machine backup, it was time to enable FileVault as I had done for years. It did not go so well this time.
DNSCrypt Version 2
All that stuff I said before in Internet Address Lookup Security? Well, that’s the old way and probably doesn’t even work anymore. At least, that’s how it appeared to me and sent me off to find the new solution: DNSCrypt version 2.
Security at Github
Prompted by a tweet by CSS-Tricks about protecting the token, this is a brief post that showcases a handful of security techniques used at Github from Let’s look at some of the security at Github.
Internet Address Lookup Security
Macintosh Security posted PAC Attacks When Using HTTPS! VPN To The Rescue with more good reasons to use VPN to secure your sensitive internet work. Since everyone already does that or uses only secure networks (right?) I was intrigued by the DNSCrypt information at the bottom to secure my internet address lookups.
QuickTime for Windows is Emblematic
Apple recently discontinued QuickTime for Windows after it was reported to have security issues. Here is a letter I wrote to Tim Cook.
My Personal Three S’s of Development
In the lead-up to Apple’s WWDC next week with the supposed focus on quality I thought this would be a timely topic.
Over the years I feel like I’ve learned a thing or two about building new systems. “New systems” is a generic term you can apply to just about anything you do. This could apply to adding a new feature to a car, or coming up with a new idea for an app, or anything in your field of interest or expertise. While the shiny and whiz-bang features get all the attention, none of it matters one bit if the development of this new thing doesn’t start with the following three S’s.