Apple Security Ping!
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Posted on 04/11/2014 5:58:05 PM PDT by Swordmaker
Apple said Thursday that its mobile, desktop and Web services weren’t affected by a major flaw in a set of security software used by hundreds of thousands of websites.
The flaw, codenamed “Heartbleed” and first reported by Web security firm Codenomicon, was discovered in a technology called “OpenSSL” — a set of encryption software used by Web companies to safeguard user information. Sites that use OpenSSL will display a small “lock” icon in the top left-hand corner of your Web browser’s address bar (though not all sites showing this lock use OpenSSL); the technology is used on more than two-thirds of websites across the Internet.
“Apple takes security very seriously. IOS and OS X never incorporated the vulnerable software and key Web-based services were not affected,” an Apple spokesperson told Re/code.
Apple’s statement comes in the days after the disclosure rocked companies and Web security wonks across the world; security expert Bruce Schneier called Heartbleed “catastrophic” in a blog post this week. “On the scale of 1 to 10, this is an 11,” he wrote.
Major Internet firms scrambled to issue patches to fix the flaw in their Web services in the following days, but companies like Facebook, Google and Yahoo all admitted periods of time in which their services could have been susceptible to the Heartbleed flaw.
Security experts have reminded users to update passwords across any sites that may have been affected, but only after the companies have updated their security software.
It has also been suggested that people start using password management tools like Lastpass, 1Password and Apple’s own Safari Browser password generator in order to keep track of multiple passwords across various accounts, rather than using one single password phrase for every account.
Bump
If you want on or off the Mac Ping List, Freepmail me.
Thanks, Swordmaker.
I will be using Safari’s password generator from now on!
A better approach is to use a pass phrase such as:
23madrosesATE8rocks
It’s a nonsense phrase that’s easy to memorize because it’s silly but impossible for a heuristic generator to guess. It includes upper and lowercase and numbers, meeting most password requirements.
Thanks for the ping...
If I need to model something critical like stress analysis on a primary mechanical linkage, joint, or weld, let alone realtime motion or deformation analysis, I am certainly NOT going to look for any apple machines for a solution.
This is why we Engineers always start grinning and smothering laughter when some macophile newbie asks when the five-figure (and up) high-end software we rely upon will be ported to the mac OS. As well ask when a version will be started upon to run on a PS2. *snicker*
You’re slipping. It took almost an hour for the Apple haters to toss a nasty comment unrelated to the thread. Bizarre.
ping for later discussion…..
Um, yes, you are. Granted, your phone is probably safe, but your bank account isn't specially protected just because you're using an Apple product to access it.
I know: "I've made up my mind! Don't confuse me with the facts!"
Bump
Well, I use that approach ( a combination of numbers/caps/phrases) with all my various passwords, but was under the impression that anything I conjured up could be grabbed by the “hack”.
Am I wrong?
I am old enough to remember life before the internet. Got along without it before I met it, and could get along without it now.
If it comes to that, of course. But think of the hit on the economy?
My suspicious mind does wander into “tin-foil fashion accessories” from time to time, and is now is wondering if this is just the preamble to a .gov excuse to take it all over.
I really don’t care at this point. They will ultimately fail, for they forget that we are not as stupid as they think, and actually can find myriad creative ways around them, if we are clever and quiet.
“Well, aren’t you special”
Is it just only all about you, and how incredibly intelligent you are, compared to all of us clueless fools out here in fly-over land.
Are you trying to be the first to get voted off the island, for being a jerk?
Many of us made a very good living using Macs, and never had to have an expensive IT team to keep us up and running 24/7, and we managed to keep investors very happy as we were entrusted with more of their money than you ever dreamed of making.
My husband was an MIT graduate, and would never switch to a PC. But, he was an independent thinker, and ran his own profitable business, unlike most of you cubicle drones.
Sorry if I am being harsh. It is late, and I miss him so much. And you Mac haters are so blind to the bigger picture.
A computer is just a tool one uses to get a specific job accomplished. Your job requires one type of tool - but your expertise in that specific use doesn’t qualify you as any kind of expert in what works in endeavors outside of your narrow specialty.
In short, stuff it, or risk being tossed off the island, because you offer nothing but negativity, caused by your lack of vision. You seem only able to feel the tail of the elephant, and have missed the whole of the animal.
“Interesting. So you believe that if someone merely points out the inherent flaws in anything related to apple or other graphics boxen, they are ‘apple-haters’? You sound like the persons at okkcupid who protest so loudly that someone who is for traditional marriage is a “homophobe”.
Yes, Utilizer, anything short of glowing approval on an apple thread is hate. It’s in the FR manual somewhere.
“Um, yes, you are. Granted, your phone is probably safe, but your bank account isn’t specially protected just because you’re using an Apple product to access it.”
“As Cluley tells us (in a request to correct a mistake in this article), “This isn’t Apple’s problem and there’s nothing for them to fix. But that doesn’t mean Apple users are safe from the effects of Heartbleed. All internet users were at risk if connecting to vulnerable online services - regardless of the platform they were using.”
from Apple Says Heartbleed Doesn’t Affect iOS, OS X, and Its Web Services [Updated]
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Apple-Says-Heartbleed-Doesn-t-Affect-iOS-OS-X-and-Its-Web-Services-437094.shtml
Kind of like you said.
I do not state My positions based upon some archaic designations of "I am better than Thee", but upon some real world experience in the electronics industry.
Macophiles are all the same. The equivalent of the French who view anyone who does not fluently speak the true and unaccented lingua franca as truly beneath contempt. "American TOURISTTE -I spit upon you! Patoooie! Patooie!"
I know hardware. I know a bit about coding. I can recognize a good painting from the graffiti sprayed upon walls, and readily acknowledge the skills inherent upon the artists I have known throughout life. That is not the same as giving the same due as those individuals who can understand and work with machine code, as those are two very separate disciplines.
I do not denigrate macs for what capabilities they possess. If I ever wish to create My own version of a Monet, I might look at a mac indeed. If I wish to play a very realistic computer game then I would indeed look at a PS2 or xbox for that.
Merely stating that those platforms are not designed to accommodate some true processing power should not in any way equate to lessening what they are capable of. You can run a business, I suppose, on a mac. After all, they can handle forms and printing things quite well. However, immediately assuming that because they can work smoothly with graphics-based applications means that they can handle anything else there is... is, I hesitate to inform you, not realistic.
They can do pretty pictures and cute fonts well, or so I am told.
For real-world computing tasks... sorry, but other platforms are far better suited.
If you are offended by that for whatever reason(s)...
I have no method I can think of available to Me to convince you that responding emotionally to a task in the real world is not the best way available to accomplish the majority of challenges that come about. For personal interactions, perhaps. For computational requirements, not so much.
Enjoy your mac. And your memories. When I need to design a critical component, your emotionally-laden comments will help not a whit when I need to create something that lives may depend upon.
But a pretty picture might help afterwards, if you like.
As far as "money" is concerned, I have never spoken about it in any of My posts. It seems to be of great concern to you, however, so enjoy by all means. I will not discuss such matters as monetary wealth with you or anyone else in this or any other forum.
As far as being only able to see the "tail of the elephant", I am not the one who descended to anatomical references in order to attempt to denigrate another with such poor attempts of humor in lieu of realistic refutations, and your attempts to mitigate My statements thus far are assuredly not addressing the points I addressed, if not purposefully disingenuous at least in part. Or deflective at the very least, in particular in regards to the points I illustrated in My original post.
I am truly sorry of you are offended by it.. no, actually I think not. If the only response you are willing to offer is that a graphics boxen is no less useful than a machine capable of processing more engineering- and physics- related computations, then nothing I can say will change your emotionally-invested viewpoint.
That does not mean I will ever look for a mac, xbox, or ps2 to accomplish the computations that I am determined to solve at any time. Paint a picture? probably. Design a flyer? OK. Layout a newspaper -sure. Even play a computer game I can certainly see.
Even macs have their useage, after all.
Oh? I guess scientist, engineers, and programers will never be using the toy Apple Mac computers, will they, Utilizer? According to you the Mac's just aren't up to it. . . They ain't capable. After all. It ain't rocket science. . . Right?
Hey! Utilizer, what ARE all those notebooks those engineers and scientists are using at NASA's AMES SPACE CENTER? I guess they couldn't be MacBook Pros. Nah.
You said they aren't capable!
Your are aware that Apple Mac OSX is certified POSIX compatible, TradeMarked UNIX, are you not? Further, you should be aware that several PC Magazines have rated the best WINDOWS PC notebook is an Apple MacBook Pro. . . Oh, you aren't. That's even running in a sandbox inside OSX. . . . And are you aware there are people happily running CATIA on Apple Macs? Older versions run in UNIX. So much for your snickering.
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