If you suspect someone is using your Mac while you’re away and getting into personal documents and files, the easiest way to quickly find out is by looking at the Recent Items list: Pull down the  Apple menu and go to “Recent Items” Look for apps, servers, and documents you didn’t open Now you’re … Read More

Time Machine backups can be encrypted right from your Mac. This means the data is extremely safe from prying eyes and the very unlikely event of a cracking attempt, and it also means you’ll need a password to access the encrypted backups yourself. Enabling this feature can be done in two ways: Enable Encryption on … Read More

It’s now easier than ever to quickly encrypt external disks and hard drives from Mac OS X, whether they are USB drives, Firewire, or even SD cards. While you can still use the traditional route to encrypt disks through Disk Utility, from OS X Mountain Lion onward the process is streamlined directly into the Finder … Read More

If you are tired of keeping up with all the Java security updates and potential vulnerabilities, you can avoid a potential problem completely just by disabling Java. For the average user, we’ve recommended keeping Java disabled as one of the primary means of protecting a Mac against potential malware, viruses, and trojans. In fact, the … Read More

Apple has released an update to Java aimed at addressing the recently discovered security issue that could impact some Mac users. The update, dubbed “Java for OS X 2012-005″, is available for users of Mac OS X 10.6, 10.7, and 10.8. All Mac users eligible for the update are recommended to install it. You can … Read More

If you’re running OS X Mountain Lion you’ve probably noticed that when apps attempt to access your Contacts list you will get an alert like “Application would like to access your contacts”, giving you the ability to allow or deny access. The apps that make the Contacts requests then get stored in a privacy list, … Read More

Oracle has released a security patch for the recently discussed Java 7 vulnerability that had potential to run malicious code on a targeted computer. If you had previously installed Java SE 7 in OS X Mountain Lion or Lion you can download the new SE 7u7 update directly from Oracle: Get the Java SE 7u7 … Read More

A new potentially dangerous Java security vulnerability has been discovered that could allow malicious code to run on a Java-enabled computer, be it a Mac or Windows PC. Most Mac users will be safe from the vulnerability because OS X Mountain Lion does not include Java by default, and OS X Lion includes an older … Read More

Do Not Track is a new privacy feature in Safari 6 that causes Safari to tell certain websites to not track you online as you browse the web. This prevents social platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and Google, from tracking you across the web, and it also causes ad servers and analytic services to not follow … Read More

There is a new means of password protecting folders and sensitive files introduced in OS X Mountain Lion that lets you create a new encrypted disk image directly from a specified folder. Though you can still create a blank disk image and fill it as you see fit, this new option in Disk Utility is … Read More