Tag Archives: Mac

Avira

What Can Siri Help You With Today?

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This post is about cool things you can do with Siri, and some you might wish it didn’t do. Stick with me to the end of this post, and I’ll even share with you a funny video of what Siri “really” looks like…

“Siri, please save my iPhone from the messages of death”

This somewhat melodramatic title was posted on TheRegister and reports incoming messages that trigger a bug in the iOS, inducing applications to crash…

The solution?

Apple suggests Siri as a temporary fix (full instructions here). One of the options includes asking Siri to “reply to the malicious message”. That’s right – if you’re being picked on by a big bad hacker who is sending you “messages of death”, get big sister Siri to reply with a digital tongue-lashing – sweet!

“Siri, please turn on the light, switch on the stero and start my car”

Back in 2014, there was excitement surrounding the application called GoogolPLex, which hooked up a hacked version of Siri to the Internet of things. Suddenly you could use Siri for all sorts of applications, as seen in this video:

What’s particularly clever, is the name: “GoogolPlex, turn on the lights” is actually understood by Siri as “Google, please turn on the lights”. Then, instead of running a Google search, GoogolPlex redirects the requests to its servers and uses API’s that interact with your hardware to process your requests.

GoogolPlex, beam me up!

Siri, stop recording our conversations…

You love using Siri? She is a great listener (granted, with dubious hearing). However, if you’re also a staunch believe in privacy, you might want to reconsider what it is exactly you tell your beloved assistant. As reported in this post, all voice recordings are stored for 6 months, after which time they keep the recording for another 18 months but delete the number associated with it… In case you’re now thinking of switching to Microsoft’s equally friendly Cortana, the policy is very similar…

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And now, for a look at what Siri looks like, as seen in Raj’s vivid imagination (from the Big Bang Theory):

The post What Can Siri Help You With Today? appeared first on Avira Blog.

Avira

Don’t Let Your Mac Fall Asleep: It Might Dream Up A Rootkit

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Just last month we talked about how the “Unicode of Death” crashes your iPhones and Apple Watches, how easily Apple Safari can be manipulated via URL-Spoofing and the Ex-NSA guy who pointed to Mac security flaws.

Now Pedro Vilaca, a security expert who is deep into Mac OS X and iOS security, found another not so great looking vulnerability. Take a look at what he wrote on his blog: “Well, Apple’s S3 suspend-resume implementation is so f*cked up that they will leave the flash protections unlocked after a suspend-resume cycle. !?#$&#%&!#%&!#.

And you ask, what the hell does this mean? It means that you can overwrite the contents of your BIOS from userland and rootkit EFI without any other trick other than a suspend-resume cycle, a kernel extension, flashrom, and root access.”

Wow. So basically it is possible to install a rootkit on a Mac without much of an effort. Just wait until the machine enters sleep mode for at least 30 seconds or more so the Flash locks are removed. Once gone the device is yours. With the Flash locks gone you can play around with the UEFI code and well … for example install a rootkit. The only way to protect yourself from it is to never let your Apple device go into sleep mode.

Luckily not all devices seem to be affected. Vilaca tested the issue against a MacBook Pro Retina, a MacBook Pro 8,2, and a MacBook Air, all running the latest EFI firmware available. All of them were vulnerable. There is a shimmer of hope though: The latest MacBooks might have been silently fixed by Apple, since the security expert was not able to replicate the vulnerability there.

The post Don’t Let Your Mac Fall Asleep: It Might Dream Up A Rootkit appeared first on Avira Blog.

Avira

Ex-NSA Guy Points to Mac Security Flaws

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Whereas Apple develops its iOS with security a part of the process, with OS X development security seems to be more of an afterthought. ‘Bug bounty’ programs are one direction suggested for Apple, but until there is a change in the current approach, the vulnerabilities remain open to any would-be hackers.

At the recent RSA Conference in San Francisco, Wardle gave a presentation titled “Writing Bad@ss OS X Malware,” in which he challenges Apple’s OS X developers to change their way of thinking – especially considering that the majority of the malware getting into Macs (now measuring hundreds of thousands) is “amateur, even basic,” according to Wardle.

More advanced Mac attacks, such as the ‘Rootpipe’ backdoor, have been difficult for Apple to patch, and failed ‘fixes’ have been covered by thehackernews.com, computerworld.com, securityweek.com, forbes.com, and others in the first half of 2015.

AV-Test, a leading independent computer security testing firm, recently tested 10 different Mac OS X security software packages (you can read the full report here), writing that:

“The legend that Mac OS X is supposedly invincible is not borne out by the facts. In the aftermath of major attacks by Flashback, the police Trojan Browlock or Shellshock, the number of assaults on Mac OS X continues to increase.”

In AV-Test’s analysis, Avira Free Antivirus for Mac earned a 100% detection score against 160 new Mac-specific viruses and malware. If you’re taking chances with no security on your Mac, do yourself a favor and take care of it right now – FREE DOWNLOAD.

The post Ex-NSA Guy Points to Mac Security Flaws appeared first on Avira Blog.

AVG

Grab the new AVG Cleaner for Mac

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Just as Windows and all applications tend to collect temporary files, log and so called “cache” files in order to function properly, so do applications on your iMac, MacBook or Mac Mini – and in many cases they leave those files behind.

AVG is happy to announce a brand-new version of AVG Cleaner for Mac, which helps remove leftover files from your Mac. Click here to download it right away!

AVG Cleaner for Mac

 

AVG Cleaner for Mac analyzes invisible data trash and unwanted duplicate files that gather on Mac computers through everyday usage, helping to disk space for storing precious photos, music and other important files. The new Cleaner for Mac app sports a new user interface, too, which helps makes the cleaning easier. Here’s what we actually help you remove:

  • NEW iPhoto Cache: iPhoto creates its own “cache” folders, which help speed up the viewing of photos, which takes up more and more space. Also, our users reported to us that they experienced problems with deleting photos which is directly tied to the iPhoto cache, which is why we decided to implement that cleaning mechanism.
  • Forgotten duplicate files: Viewing, copying and editing files could result in duplicate music,photos, videos and documents
  • Uninstall leftovers: Even if an application has been uninstalled, unneeded cache files may remain
  • Download folder: Many old unneeded files including setup files, videos, pictures and documents may end up in the OS X download folder
  • Browser cache: Safari®, Chrome®, and Firefox® browsers store non critical temporary cache files and cookies in a cache folder. Deleting this cache not onl frees up drive space but can hel protect privacy
  • Crash files and logs: Update logs and crash reports are created automatically by both Mac OS and 3rd party applications. This data is not critical and can waste lot of drive space.

AVG Cleaner for Mac Disk Cleaner

AVG Cleaner for Mac Duplicate Finder

 

 

AVG

Own a Mac? Well, it might need a clean-up too…

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Well, believe it or not this is not always the case. As even the shiniest of sports cars need to go to a mechanic once in a while, your Mac needs to get a proper cleanup as, over time, its hard-drive can get cluttered.

In this article, we’ll dive deep into the data clutter that even the newest Macs accumulate after only a few days. I’ll talk about how much disk space you can regularly recover and how getting rid of clutter can improve your privacy and boost system reliability.

Let’s give your Mac a proper spring clean – throughout the year!

 

The daily data-clutter…

Here’s an unfortunate, little known, but true fact: Almost every time you use your applications, play a game or browse the web, your Mac collects data “junk”. This data is officially known as cache which is the data collected from errors and other system activity in countless log files.

Unfortunately, this data is hidden on your hard disk and can’t be easily deleted.

AVG Cleaner for Mac Cache

 

But it’s not just cache that you need to clean regularly. For most people, both the Download folder and the Recycle Bin remain the central store for all downloaded files (dmg images, old PDF files etc.)

This can easily amount to several Gigabytes if forgotten! It’s time to find out all about why your Mac’s disk may be bloated and how you can easily spot files that you didn’t even know were lurking on your hard disk.

 

A Quick Lab Test

We’ve analyzed the contents of some of our Macs internally with our very own AVG Cleaner for Mac, and found more than 14.3 GB of unnecessary files in various locations on a Retina MacBook Pro that we’ve been using productively for several months. An iMac® 27” which was purchased and used for just a few weeks for basic tasks such as surfing the web and light office tasks showed 1.3 GB of wasteful files.

AVG Cleaner for Mac Clutter

Digging deeper, we found that a huge chunk of this unnecessary data was located in the Mac OS® “Download” folder – a folder that we rarely cleaned up and that served mainly as a temporary storage for downloaded programs, audiobooks, videos, ISO files, and more.

What’s more interesting than how much disk space I could recover was the sheer number of unnecessary files on those machines:

AVG Cleaner for Mac Log Files

On the newly-bought MacBook Retina, I found 2,718 junk files – most located in the hidden user cache folder. The MacBook Air suffered from more than 1,101 unnecessary files. “So what’s with all that junk?” you might be asking. Basically the three most common trash types include….

 

Application Cache

Most applications that you actively use on your Mac create what’s called “cache” and “log” files. Cache files are helpful, as they’re sometimes known to speed up the application launch or boost web-browsing speed (i.e. the Safari® cache).

Unfortunately, a lot of apps don’t clean up their cache files when they’re no longer being used and this is when the cache gets out of control:

Old and corrupt cache files from previous app versions could cause errors when running newer apps.

Cache files could completely grow out of proportion.

Out of date cache files are forgotten on your hard disk and remain there forever, growing and growing….

We’ve dug deep into all the data trash found on these two machines to give you an example of how junk could affect your daily work (or gaming) routine…..

  • Uninstall leftovers
  • Font lists
  • Browser Cache
  • History Lists
  • Application images

These are just some selected examples of unnecessary cache files we found on our test machines. It’s wise to flush the cache every now and then (at least once a month) to either prevent problems or solve them effectively – even AppleTMitself recommends flushing the cache once in a while to troubleshoot your Mac. More on that below…

 

Log files

Next to cache files, Mac OS and a lot of applications tend to create log files. These contain protocols of crashes, when you started an application, when the last update occurred and so on. Most of the log entries have one thing in common, no one except professional developers or trained admins are able to get anything out of it.

  • Update logs
  • Crash files
  • General logs

Unless your IT admin wants to analyze your log files, there’s barely any need to keep them. We’ll show you how to delete them safely…

Download & Trash folder

As I mentioned above, the Download folder can accumulate Gigabytes of unnecessary files. Why? Because it’s your browsers default location for storing files. Even I, who cares a lot about disk space and cleaning up, forget to clean out the Download folder. To a lot of users, the Recycle Bin serves the same purpose….you delete files but just forget to go through it and delete unwanted stuff permanently.

 

AVG Cleaner for Mac helps you clean up all these unnecessary files in seconds. In the meantime, why not download it and give it a try today, it’s free!

Avast

When it comes to dangers on the internet, we are our own worst enemies

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Today’s biggest threat to the normal consumer is the consumer themselves.

This bold statement was made by Avast CEO Vincent Steckler in an interview with German technology website Valuetech in Munich last week. That’s a daring position to take after this year’s revelations about NSA spying, the theft of tens of millions of customer passwords from major retailers like Target and Home Depot, the recent Sony Pictures hack, and the normal parade of Trojan horses, worms and viruses, but it’s one that Steckler stands behind.

Watch the interview here (04:00),

Mr. Steckler has good reason for his conclusion. Here’s a few of the main points he made during the interview.

Social engineering preys on human weakness

“A lot of attacks are still using social engineering techniques; phishing emails – ways of convincing the user to give up valuable information,” said Steckler.

An example of phishing emails just occurred after Black Friday, when cybercrooks sent millions of fake purchase confirmation emails to customers of major retailers. You can read about that, as well as what to do if you are a victim,  in our blog, Fake confirmation emails from Walmart, Home Depot, others in circulation.

The Mac misconception

Mac users are well-known for proudly touting that they don’t use antivirus protection because they never have a problem with viruses. But, it’s really a numbers game.

“There is no fundamental difference,” Steckler says of the security of PCs and Macs. “Mac is not inherently any safer, as a technology, than Windows is. What makes a difference there is what is more opportune for a bad guy to attack.”

He explains that malware written for Windows can attack up to 93% of the world’s PCs. Mac malware only reaches 7-8% of the world’s PCs. The safety then lies in the lower numbers of Mac devices rather than a technical safety advantage.

Households networks are as complicated as small business networks

With the interconnectivity of household devices from household computers, mobile phones, TVs and even refrigerators, Steckler compares the typical household network to that of a small business.

“The central weakness in this ‘Internet of Things’ will be that home router – the thing that connects everything together,” says Steckler, “and basically doesn’t have any security on it.”

Avast 2015 seeks to address this lack in security by including the new Home Network Security scanner.

AVG

Mac OS-X users hit with “iWorm” Malware

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The warning is particularly relevant to those users who choose to download pirated software. As reported on The Safe Mac, the “iWorm” Trojan malware has been distributed through a pirate software website offering infected commercial software applications, such as Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Microsoft Office and Parallels.

This particular Trojan malware has been identified as being able to receive commands from the remote attacker and can inspect and transmit your files from your Mac. iWorm can also download and execute additional components – potentially causing serious havoc and compromising your privacy.

Mac users who choose to download untrusted applications from pirate websites are often completely unaware of the risks; easily blindsided by the immediate cost-savings of avoiding purchasing the software legitimately.

All iWorm Trojan malware is detected by AVG Antivirus for Mac including:

  • Virus OSX/iWorm.A
  • Trojan OSX/Iservice.B

While the prevalence of Mac malware remains relatively low when compared to Windows PC users, it’s no reason for Mac users to be complacent. Make sure you protect all your devices today.

Until next time, stay safe out there.

 

ESET

How to fix Shellshock Bash on Mac OS X: Mavericks edition

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Apple Mac OS X users concerned about the Bash vulnerability dubbed Shellshock got some relief late yesterday as Apple published fixes for various versions of OS X. But if you use Mavericks you will need to install 10.9.5 before the Bash fix will work.

The post How to fix Shellshock Bash on Mac OS X: Mavericks edition appeared first on We Live Security.