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Back in September, Synack security researcher Patrick Wardle disclosed a nasty issue with Apple's nefarious-app stopping Gatekeeper system in OS X. While the software is great at stopping malware-infected apps that users have downloaded from the bowels of the internet, it did have a flaw: a signed app could, upon launch, initiate an unsigned program if it resided in the same directory. Because the end user is never aware that this second application is launching, it's a great way to infect a computer. As a responsible researcher, Wardle informed Apple and got a security update as a result. That should...

My copy of google chrome is not running as it dont fully finish launching on my launch attempt . I can not force quit it from the force quit applications window.. because its nt running. I can not launch it as the Icon in my dock seems inert. there are a couple of forums I NEED my password for and they were available immediately using chrome. At Wits End, M.M.

Mac security software suite MacKeeper is recovering after a hack leaked millions of users' personal information. Kromtech, the software developer, confirmed that it had received notice of the hack yesterday, discovering a hole in its security which was exposing customer usernames, email addresses and other personal data for as much as 13 million users. According to Kromtech, the hole was patched within a matter of hours after security researcher Chris Vickery had published details of the error on Reddit over the weekend. The German developer assured customers that there was no evidence that the data had been accessed by malicious...

... Apple today released a substantial update for its iOS mobile operating system, containing bug fixes and multiple patches for remotely exploitable vulnerabilities. No fewer than 50 security flaws are patched in iOS 9.2, 19 of which permitted local and remote execution of arbitrary code without user interaction. The zlib file compression library, CoreMedia Playback media utility, libarchive archival utility and the OpenGL 2D and 3D graphics platform all allowed maliciously crafted websites to run arbitrary code on victims' systems, Apple said in its security advisory. Ten flaws in the WebKit rendering engine, used by Apple's Safari web browser and...

Mac Anti-Virus: Why I Don’t Use Any! Simon Royal - 2015.10.18 I had a short-lived experience using anti-virus on my Mac. Why don’t I use it anymore?Mac anti-virus has always been a talking point amongst Mac users. We sit smug behind our ‘secure’ Apple computers, poking fun at Windows users and their constant battle with anti-virus suites and malware protection.The number of Windows computers I get asked to look at because they are running slow and the culprit are viruses and junk-ware programs that hog system resources and take over their browser is ridiculous.In early 2014, I briefly tried out Sophos Home...

Microsoft is offering up to $300 to US consumers who trade in their old PC or Mac for a Windows 10 device - but a lot less for consumers elsewhere. Looking to kick-start Windows 10 sales, Microsoft has rolled out its Easy Trade Up promotion to select markets, offering cash for used hardware when purchasing a Windows 10 device with a minimum value. The terms are different in each market, and Windows 10 buyers in the US appear to be offered roughly twice as much for their old kit as consumers elsewhere. However, purchases in the US must be made...

After about a day and a half, trying to stop a "NexDef requires Java SE6 Runtime" notice hoping up every 10 Seconds, and Java JRE-8u60 download not completing (but saying and verifying as completed), I finally got rid of the problem. FIRST: I HIGHLY RECOMMEND BEFORE YOU UPGRADE FROM OS X YOSEMITE, to El Capitan, you follow the instructions I found at the bottom of Page 1 of this link . But I stopped at step 6 and did NOT do Steps 7, or Step 8. Here are those directions, which state: violins27 May 26, 2013 5:56 PM Re:...

One obvious reason that Windows 8 was such a disaster for Microsoft was that a lot of longtime Windows users absolutely hated it. To express their frustrations with Windows 8, many of these users either switched back to Windows 7 or changed computing platforms all together by switching to Macs. One such person was Vivek Wadhwa, the director of research at Center for Entrepreneurship and Research Commercialization at Duke, who fled Windows 8 in terror for Apple before giving Microsoft another shot with Windows 10. Writing in The Washington Post, Wadhwa explains that he recently installed Windows 10 onto his...

Subtitle: There are a number of reasons why Macs are worth considering as you migrate to Windows 10. Microsoft's Windows 10 has finally been released and many users are looking for a new computer to take advantage of its new features. While it has been advertised that Windows 10 will perform properly on most laptops currently running Windows 7 or 8, we all know that to get the most of the many features and performance enhancements, you'll want the latest high-end laptops designed for the new OS. As you consider your next PC purchase, here's something else to think about:...

Apple has updated Boot Camp, its utility that allows Windows to run on a Mac, to support Windows 10, two weeks after Microsoft launched its latest OS. Only the 64-bit version of Windows 10 will work with Boot Camp, Apple said Wednesday in a support document. Additionally, Windows 10 will only work on Macs running OS X Yosemite. Apple reminded users that only Macs with Intel processors work with Boot Camp, a requirement since the multi-boot utility debuted in 2006. An ISO file of the 64-bit version of Windows 10 is needed and Apple provides instructions on how to make...

Apple’s vaunted reputation for safety and security has taken some hits recently. Just this week came news of DYLD_PRINT_TO_FILE — a bug in Apple’s OS X operating system that has allowed a malicious program to take complete control of Macs. *snip* When it comes to security flaws, Windows and OS X are now about tied, says Morey Haber, VP of technology at corporate security software maker BeyondTrust.

Apple is reportedly working on a fix to eradicate a dangerous bug that could allow unauthorised users access to Mac OS X Yosemite machines. The Guardian’s sources say Apple will release a security update to wipe out the so-called "zero day" DYLD bug as soon as possible. The “privilege escalation” bug potentially allows third parties to gain administrator access to a Mac without a password. The fix for Mac OS X 10.10.5 Yosemite will arrive shortly, ending worries that the vulnerability wouldn't be plugged before the next version, El Capitan, comes this autumn. In the meantime, the paper says Apple...

It’s Black Hat season, meaning that we are getting a new batch of zero-day exploits showing how insecure our gadgets are. Xeno Kovah and Trammell Hudson found a serious zero-day vulnerability in OS X letting malware creators completely brick your Mac without any way to reset it to its factory status. Apple told The Guardian that it is working on a fix for both Yosemite and El Capitan. This zero-day exploit dubbed Thunderstrike 2 targets your Mac’s firmware thanks to an attached Thunderbolt accessory, such as an Ethernet adaptor or an external hard drive. After receiving the code via a...

The Russian government is reportedly looking to ban "gay" emoji symbols over fears the same-sex pictures could violate censorship laws.Russia's Izvestia newspaper reports that Russian senator Mikhail Marchenko has issued a complaint that a collection of new emojis depict same-sex couples. Marchenko argues the emojis are in violation of a 2013 Russian law banning what the government deems gay "propaganda" materials. The Beeb reports (via Izvestia) that the government's watchdog group plans to request that president Putin's Young Guard youth group investigate and report on the matter.The Russian senator is quoted as expressing concern that the gay emojis "promoted non-traditional...

Windows 10 will be the last edition of Microsoft's operating system, so it's no wonder that the tech giant has gone all out to make it the best OS to date. Microsoft has already revealed features, such as a smarter Cortana and Xbox integration, that may appeal to existing Windows users and lure those on other operating systems. Here are 10 reasons why Windows 10 could effortlessly pull you away from your Mac or Chrome operating system when it debuts for PCs and tablets on July 29. 1. Cortana is back and better than ever Forget Siri and all of...

Crossy Road on Mac with BlueStacks BlueStacks, a free desktop Android emulator that lets users play any mobile game or app on the big screen with a mouse and keyboard, has mostly been limited to PC users until today. But Mac users are about to get access to the software that the company says already has around 90 million users on Windows. While the app arrived briefly as an alpha release of Mac users back in 2012, this morning the company is launching an official release of the popular BlueStacks App Player software for Mac for the first time, allowing...

A security researcher has found what he says is a deep flaw that potentially affects all Macintosh Intel models made until mid-2014, when the error he discovered appears to have been fixed. The exploit would allow, in a very particular set of combined conditions, to rewrite the boot-up firmware in a Mac to include persistent, malicious software. Pedro Vilaca revealed the information without what is considered responsible disclosure in the security industry, in which an affected company or project is notified sufficiently far ahead of the release of information to allow them the potential to fix the problem. Apple isn’t...

Update 5/15/15: I've clarified some of my findings at the bottom of this post. I've owned the 2015 MacBook for just over a month now. I've had a remarkably good time using it so far, and just yesterday I decided to upgrade my installation of Windows 8.1 to the Windows 10 Insider Preview. I had tried it out a couple months earlier through a virtual machine, and at the time I wasn't sure I wanted it as my main operating system. But after taking the plunge, I'm very happy to be using it. I wanted to record a few thoughts...

VirtualBox for OS XHow many ways can you run Windows or Linux on your Mac? Some Mac users might reply with a terse, ‘Too many ways.’ I understand the sentiment. Windows isn’t free. Linux isn’t easy. However, the Mac is the ultimate platform in that it runs almost any popular operating system for personal computers (what was once all the rage prior to the post-PC era of mobile computing), and in some cases can run them all at the same time. How can you do that? Easy. And free. Virtually, My Dear Watson Apple builds in a straightforward way to...

Last November, Microsoft said that it would bring some of the core features of its .NET platform — which has traditionally been Windows-only — to Linux and Mac. Today, at its Build developer conference, the company announced its first full preview of the .NET Core runtime for Linux and Mac OS X.In addition, Microsoft is making the release candidate of the full .NET framework for Windows available to developers today [April 29, 2015]. The highlight here, though, is obviously the release of .NET Core for platforms other than Windows. As Microsoft VP of its developer division S. “Soma” Somasegar told...