Weekly Mac Security and Tech News Roundup: 4/12/13

• Rebecca Kelley
12 years ago
Categories: Security News
Tags: Mac Security, News, Tech

It’s Friday! You know what that means — roundup time. Here’s what we found interesting throughout the week.

Security News

• Vudu, a movie streaming site, recently had a break-in at their offices. Various items, including hard drives containing sensitive customer information, were stolen.
• Internet activists are celebrating this week after House Republicans halted plans to vote on reforming federal anti-hacking laws.

From the Intego Blog

• WordPress joined the growing list of companies that now offer two-factor authentication.
• Another week, another Adobe update. This one patches 10 critical vulnerabilities in Flash Player, Shockwave Player, and ColdFusion.
• Ever wonder what the difference is between incoming and outgoing firewall protection? Lysa breaks it down for you.

Apple News

• Double Encore has an insightful writeup about what Apple’s “limit ad tracking” feature actually means to users.
• Miami U.S. District Judge Robert Scola has accused both Apple and Google of using the courts “as a business strategy,” saying neither company has any interest in “efficiently and expeditiously resolving [the patent] dispute.”
• CNET has a video detailing the evolution of the iPhone.
• Apparently nearly 50% of teenagers own an iPhone, and 68% of teenagers who own a tablet computer use an iPad.
• Apple’s idea of a tablet/laptop hybrid has been revealed. Unfortunately, it looks pretty identical to numerous devices that are already being sold by Apple’s competitors.

Notable Tech News

• In “crazy futuristic technology” news, apparently your iPhone can now be used to read fingerprints, scan irises, and identify you via your facial features. AOptix is a company that’s created a hardware and app package that “transforms your iPhone into a mobile biometric reader.” I suppose that’s handy for law enforcement, but it does seem a little “Minority Report” to me.
• Microsoft is often the butt of many jokes, but ReadWrite has a list of 9 things the tech company does right.
• Some strip clubs are preemptively banning Google Glasses from being used in their establishments, citing serious privacy concerns. I guess if you’re planning to make it rain, you’ll have to leave your Google technology at home.
• Samsung has announced a gigantic new phone that’s nearly as big as the iPad mini.
• Searches using Microsoft’s Bing search engine return five times more links to malicious websites than searches performed with Google.
• Ars Technica has a fascinating, crazy article about ISP-sanctioned ads that are being injected directly into webpages, which is how a banner ad for H$R block managed to appear on Apple’s website.
• T-Mobile is offering a new iPhone 5 for $0 down if you trade in your iPhone 4 and 4S models and sign on to use their carrier service. The new phone isn’t free, however — customers would pay monthly charges over two years to cover the cost of the iPhone 5.

Random Awesomeness

• We tweeted this handy link out on Monday, but in case you missed it, these seven overlooked OS X tricks are worth checking out.
• If you’re so inclined, you can use MLPostFactor to install Mountain Lion on an older Mac.
• If you’re in the Atlanta, Georgia area, an Apple Pop-Up Museum Exhibit will be coming to Roswell, Georgia next weekend (Saturday, April 20th – Sunday, April 21st).
• Penn State University has a really useful guide on how to make accented letters and special characters (such as international currency characters) using your Mac. I studied Spanish for several years and had memorized the Windows codes by heart, but when I switched to a Mac I was back at square one, so this is a really handy tool.

Don’t forget that taxes are due on Monday! For those of you who won’t be sweating over your final financial details this weekend, have a secure and fun couple of days!