Posts about information security
There are several password manager products available for the Mac and iOS. In this post, I’ll focus on iCloud Keychain (free) and 1Password 5 ($49.99 for the Mac app). There are other popular options, such as LastPass and Dashlane, which store your passwords in the cloud. While it’s theoretically safe to store your data encrypted in the cloud,…
I started using Little Snitch (version 3.5.1) a couple of weeks ago. It’s software firewall for the Mac, with a primary focus on outbound connections. This is also known as a reverse firewall. There are many thorough reviews of Little Snitch available on the web, so I’ll just add my impressions: This is not a…
MacMaven Consulting offers PingFederate architecture, installation, and support services. In the first part of our SSO series, I explained what SSO is, and the special flavor of SSO called federation. In this post, I’ll give a brief introduction to PingFederate. PingFederate, a product of Ping Identity, is one of the most popular enterprise solutions for…
MacMaven Consulting offers SiteMinder architecture, installation, integration, development, and support services in the New York City area. Introduction to SSO Many large corporations have turned to off-the-shelf software for handling their SSO (single sign-on) needs. You have experienced SSO on web sites, even if you haven’t noticed it. SSO is used to jump from one…
Generally speaking, sending an email over the internet is not secure. The message can be intercepted or even modified before it reaches the recipient. There are several technologies that can be used to provide point-to-point security. Two good options on the Mac are S/MIME, which is built into Mail.app, and Gnu Privacy Guard (GPG). GPG…
Apple recently added two-step verification to Apple IDs. This optional feature helps thwart hackers from using your Apple ID. This mechanism requires you to enter a four digit code after entering your usual password. The code is delivered to your iOS devices or your cell phone. In most cases, a hacker won’t have access to…
iCloud is a fantastic service for synchronizing photos, documents, notes and more between your Macs and IOS devices. But before your personal data can be pushed to your devices, the content has to be stored somewhere. In the case of iCloud, your data is stored on Apple’s servers. So should you feel confident that your…