A look at the Biden Administration’s recently updated National Cybersecurity Strategy document seems to reflect some of the approaches to cybercrime Apple already employs. 

Take privacy, for example. The proposal suggests that privacy protection will no longer be something big tech can argue against – companies will be required to prioritize privacy. That’s fine if you run a business that does not require wholesale collection and analysis of user information, which has always been Apple’s approach. The best way to keep information private, the company argues, is not to collect it at all.

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Yet more data shows the acceleration of Mac adoption in the business world.

Okta’s recent Businesses at Work 2023 report shared numerous insights into the state of enterprise IT. One in particular grabbed my attention: endpoint management and security tools have become the most popular category of security product across the enterprise, with some players achieving really significant growth, partly on the back of their Mac support.

The data: Jamf Pro has seen 428% customer growth across the last four years, while smaller vendor Kandji experienced a 172% increase in its customer base in just the last year.

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Microsoft has launched the general availability of Microsoft Intune Suite, a consolidation of its endpoint management and security solutions to streamline protection for cloud-connected and on-premises endpoints. 

The consolidation is aimed to serve as a single vendor for all endpoint security needs for the customers to have single analytics, rather than multiple disparate datasets, with a consistent visibility to potential vulnerabilities and anomalies, according to a company blog post.

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Apple appears poised to make it more difficult to use cheap USB-C cables with its devices, and while it may well make a few dollars more from the purported plan, there are also good reasons to put the system in place.

The claim is that Apple plans to replace Lightning ports and cables with USB-C in the iPhone 15, and when it does it will introduce a Made For iPhone (MFi) scheme for such products.  The idea is that consumers will be able to purchase cables and other devices in full confidence that they will be compatible with their iPhone.

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Nearly every day, software updates of some kind roll out for our systems. From operating systems to antivirus software, to cloud services, to hardware devices, virtually none of the technology we use is static. And with these updates come side effects and problems that sometimes take a while to get fixed.

I recently found an interesting bug that hasn’t gotten a lot of attention when I purchased a Lexmark multi-function printer. As part of the installation process, I went online to download the latest printer driver. (I always recommend going to a vendor website to grab the latest drivers because, after all, the latest software should have the latest fixes, right?) I was able to set up the printer to print, scan, and electronically fax and figured I was done for the day.

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A new family of Mac malware that spreads through pirated versions of Final Cut Pro, Photoshop, and other key creative apps has been identified by the Threat Labs team at Jamf.

The new XMRig threat is a subtle cryptocurrency mining attack that has evaded detection for months. 

XMRig proliferates by attaching itself to pirated copies of creative applications, including versions of Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro X, and Adobe Photoshop. That’s the kind of "knock-off" Mac application you frequently find being distributed across peer to peer networks.

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The European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs has recommended that the European Commission reject the proposed EU-US Data Privacy Framework, which would govern the way in which the personal information of EU citizens is handled by US companies.

The committee's decision — formally, a draft motion for a resolution— represents a rejection of the European Commission’s recommendation, announced in December, that the data privacy framework should be adopted. The recommendation stated that US law now offers an “adequate” level of protection for the personal data of EU users of US companies’ services.

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Microsoft's February Patch Tuesday update deals with 76 vulnerabilities that affect Windows, Exchange, Office, and Microsoft development tools — and three Windows vulnerabilities (CVE-2023-21823, CVE-2023-21715 and CVE-2023-23376) have been reported as exploited in the wild and require immediate attention.

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Identity and access management (IAM) vendor Okta today released a report detailing app use and security trends among its broad user base. Among other trends it identified, the report found that zero trust security policies have become more common, and uptake of a wide range of security tools has been sharply on the rise.

Okta survyed 17,000 customers globally, and found that zero trust usage among its  clients has increased from 10% two years ago to 22% today, indicating both that the philosophy is more popular than ever and that a wide swathe of the market is still there to be captured, according to the report.

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If there was ever any doubt about the future of unified endpoint management (UEM) as a key component of enterprise mobility strategies, the now-permanent shift to hybrid and remote work models has sealed the deal. UEM has become a critical part of enterprise efforts to manage this complex environment.

Forrester Research’s 2022 Business Technographics Infrastructure Hardware Survey shows that 28% of infrastructure hardware technology decision makers will be investing in UEM over the next 12 months. “This is in line with previous years, so we continue to see stable growth in the UEM market,” says Andrew Hewitt, senior analyst at Forrester.

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Unified endpoint management (UEM) is a strategic IT approach that consolidates how enterprises secure and manage an array of deployed devices including phones, tablets, PCs, and even IoT devices.

As remote and hybrid work models have become the norm over the past two years, “mobility management” has come to mean management of not just mobile devices, but all devices used by mobile employees wherever they are. UEM tools incorporate existing enterprise mobility management (EMM) technologies, such as mobile device management (MDM) and mobile application management (MAM), with tools used to manage desktop PCs and laptops.

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Apple recently rolled out new iCloud security features that could help protect mobile professionals when they're on the road. The features include better iCloud data security, improved iMessage security, and more.

Here is how to use these new iCloud protections.

No one should doubt that protecting personal or enterprise data has become more important than ever. Apple introduced Lockdown Mode for iCloud in 2022, following this up with even more protections in December and, most recently, introducing free privacy and security sessions in Apple retail stores in 2023.

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Let's get one thing out of the way right off the bat: If you're looking for recommendations about Android security suites or other malware-scanning software, you've come to the wrong place.

Why? Because, like most people who closely study Android, I don't recommend using those types of apps at all. Android malware isn't the massive real-world threat it's frequently made out to be, and Google Play Protect and other native Android settings are more than enough to keep most devices safe.

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Protecting your online accounts is more important now than ever — and in spite of some recent high-profile hacks, relying on a third-party password manager is still the easiest and most effective way to ensure your most important credentials remain secure.

Why? It's simple: Reusing passwords puts you at a heightened risk for hacking. If someone discovers your password at just one website — via any sort of breach, be it large-scale or targeted — they can then use that same password to crack into your accounts at countless other places. It happens all the time.

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