Weekly Mac Security and Tech News Roundup: 3/15/13

Rebecca Kelley

12 years ago

Can you believe it’s mid-March already? St. Patrick’s Day is this weekend and for all you college basketball fanatics, March Madness starts next Thursday (after Selection Sunday determines who gets to go to the Big Dance, of course). Spring is definitely in the air, but aside from pollen, Easter candy, and Guinness, what else has been circulating this past week?

Security News

dotTech.org spells it out: anyone who feels Mac “doesn’t get viruses” hasn’t heard of ‘Pintsized.A’
ReadWrite has a fantastic article urging you to wake up when it comes to your online privacy and security because the hackers are winning.

From the Intego Blog

A new Sabpab backdoor variant has been found, so make sure your Intego VirusBarrier virus definitions are up-to-date.
Apple beefed up their App Store security by finally switching to HTTPS.
Speaking of Apple, some more information about their recent “hack” has been released.
If you’ve been scratching your head and wondering what exactly is the difference between a hardware and software firewall, we’ve put together a handy guide for you.
There have been a number of security updates this week, including one for Adobe Flash Player, one for Microsoft Office for Mac, and one for Safari 6.0.3.
You’re probably looking at all these constant updates and wondering, “Do I really need to update, or do all these new updates end up causing more harm than good?” Lysa addresses your concerns in a post about whether software updates make you feel safer or sorry.
Researchers have discovered that iOS is potentially vulnerable to malicious profiles.

Apple News

Apple’s looking at social networking from a unique perspective and is envisioning a way to better protect mobile users against spammers and stalkers. They recently submitted a patent application that would “efficiently [manage] data in a social networking service” and potentially include useful anti-spam/stalker measures.
Another day, another “Oh no, my kid racked up a huge iOS bill from in-game purchases!” story. This time, a boy from the UK spent £980 buying doughnuts for the Simpsons iPad game called “Tapped Out.” The doughnuts can be used to unlock special characters and buildings. Parental controls and passwords exist for a reason, folks.
Apple’s facing a class action lawsuit over defective retina displays that cause ghosting problems. They’re also being sued by THX, the company responsible for the sounds you hear in the Star Wars franchise, for unknown reasons.

Notable Tech News

Web advertisers are criticizing Mozilla for having the audacity to protect consumers’ privacy. The Interactive Advertising Bureau responded to Mozilla’s plan to make future versions of Firefox block third-party cookies by default as being a major threat to the survival of American small business.
If Google likes it then it shoulda put a ring on it — Google is experimenting with jewelry that would eliminate the need to remember various passwords.
Ars Technica has an interesting article about a security reporter who was the victim of “swatting,” where hackers report a terrible crime and send police and SWAT members to the unsuspecting person’s house.

Random Awesomeness

Can you use your iPhone to fight disease in Africa? Yes! All you need is an $8 glass lens and a flashlight and you can search stool samples for parasite eggs.
Anyone who’s made a chart in Pages probably appreciates this:

Did we miss anything? Okay, we probably did–share your favorite stories below, and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter and Facebook to discuss other interesting stories throughout the week.