 Many Mac users think that, by having a password protecting their access to their Mac, they are making their Mac's contents inaccessible to those who should not have access - for example, if the Mac is stolen.
The truth is that, for the majority of Macs, the password will not prevent such access. Your Mac is still vulnerable to unauthorised access if it falls into evil hands.
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 I just want to share with you a very sad tale about what can happen if your online account passwords are easy to guess, have perhaps been re-used across multiple sites - and are also not protected by a second layer of protection (called two step verification or multi-factor authentication).
A client of iTandCoffee has recently been the victim of hacking, and has been locked out of a Google account that was essential to running her business.  If you are a Mac user, there are some great new features that have arrived in macOS Monterey - which was released in October 2021.
The picture shown here gives an indication of just some of the changes - and is taken from a video we have recorded for iTandCoffee Club members. 12/10/2021 0 Comments How you can nominate a 'Recovery Contact' who can help if you lose your Apple password
Just this week, I assisted a client who found herself in trouble due to forgotten passwords - for both her Apple ID and her Mac.
When she tried to do a password reset of her Apple password, a message popped up on her Mac asking her to confirm her Mac password, so that she could then enter a new password. Unfortunately, as I see quite often with Mac users, her Mac just turns on without asking for a password - so she had no idea what the Mac's 'master' password was. So she faced a roadblock that was tricky to get around. What would have been handy in this case is a new feature that Apple has introduced as part of iOS/iPadOS 15 - where you can nominate a person (in fact, up to 5 people) as a Recovery Contact. 9/9/2021 0 Comments On Facebook, are you giving away identity info, answers to secret questions, and passwords?
Every day on Facebook, I see the posts that are seeking to steal information from my Facebook Friends.
The posts look innocent enough - perhaps even fun. Quizzes where you share information about yourself with your friends or prove how good your memory is. And I see my Facebook Friends getting caught out by these posts, and 'joining in the fun'. But here's why you should never engage with posts like this - why they can be very dangerous.  One of the best ways to manage all your passwords is to use a Password Safe (Password Vault) app that can sync between all your devices.
Here's an article that compares Password Safes. But there is a key trap with these Password Safe that I have seen regularly catches out iTandCoffee Clients, family and friends. 7/5/2021 0 Comments How to unlock your iPhone with your Apple Watch when wearing a mask - and ensure your Watch is secure
I have to say that I do love the FaceID feature of the newer iPhones. I have been used to the convenience of unlocking my iPhone with my Face since late 2017.
So it has been very frustrating to not be able to use this feature when wearing a mask. I usually have a very long passcode (over 10 characters) on my iPhone, and having to enter this every time I unlocked my phone while masked forced me to shorten this passcode - something I didn't really want to do from a security perspective. Apple's latest major update to iPhone and Apple Watch (described this article) means that now, when I am wearing a mask, my iPhone will use my Apple Watch to unlock my device. So I have re-instated my very long passcode on the iPhone. While I love this new feature of the Watch and iPhone, the security of my Apple Watch is now even more important that it was before - given that it can unlock my iPhone. My Apple Watch was only protected by a 4-digit passcode. I decided that, especially with this new capability of the Apple Watch, I needed to upgrade this protection to ensure it is as strong as my iPhone's strong passcode. Read on to learn how you can enable the new 'unlock' capability of your Watch and iPhone, and how you can improve the security of your Apple Watch. 24/4/2021 0 Comments How to easily change your Apple ID's password (for iCloud, iTunes, App Store etc) If you have forgotten your Apple password (the one you use for iCloud and/or iTunes/App /store purchases) - or if you need to change it for some other reason - it is very easy to reset your password directly from your iPad, iPhone or Mac if you have enabled something called 'two-factor authentication' (TFA).
 For me, the answer is YES!
I just checked and found that my details have most definitely been stolen, which means that my Name, Phone Number, Date of Birth, Gender, Geographic Location, Employer and Relationship status now freely available to anyone who wants to access this huge stolen list of Facebook user details. This is a real concern, because I have previously caught out Telstra accepting only a Name, Phone Number and Data of Birth as proof of identity for a password reset for a client. They did not request any other verification, even though they should have. So how do you check if your own details are on the list of over 500 MILLION Facebook user details that were stolen? 22/2/2021 0 Comments How your iPhone and iPad can show which of your passwords have been compromised Over time, there has been a multitude of data breaches - where lists of account credentials have been stolen from businesses like Dropbox, LinkedIn, Adobe, Canva, Houzz and so many more. This means that details of over 10 billion account have been stolen.
The haveibeenpwned.com website allows you to check to see what stolen lists you might appear on. But there is also another easy way to see which of your online accounts may have been compromised - and which passwords you might want to think about changing asap. |
What's on at iTandCoffee ?Join us for a short, fun 'topic of the day' classes known as PTT sessions (Personal Training for your Technology fitness!) - these are run on a regular basis. Or join any of our other classes shown below to learn so much about your technology.
If you have questions, why not join our The iTandCoffee Club to attend fun and informative 'user group' meetings. All classes are run as online classes (using Zoom) which means you can attend from anywhere. |
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