Allison interviews Brandon Thweatt from j5create about their Matter-enabled Smart Plugs and new Thunderbolt 5 dock. Brandon starts by explaining that Matter allows smart devices made by different companies to interact with various home automation systems using a common standard. So Matter-enabled devices can be controlled through and work seamlessly across Apple, Android, and Alexa […]
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CCATP #799 – Adam Engst on Apple’s Screen Recording Permissions in Sequoia Beta
Adam Engst joins me again, this time to talk about the patently wrong decision by Apple to include repetitive permissions requests for screen recording in the macOS Sequoia beta. As he explains in his article on TidBITS.com entitled Apple Reduces Excessive Sequoia Permission Requests, Shifts to Monthly, changing from weekly permissions requests to monthly is […]
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Security Bits — 2024 May 26
Feedback & Followups Listener and community feedback, developments in recently covered stories, and developments in long-running stories we’re tracking over time. Attackers are continuing to compromise Google ads, and they’re now targeting apps in the news as well as developer & sysadmin tools: Arc browser’s Windows launch targeted by Google ads malvertising — www.bleepingcomputer.com/… Ransomware […]
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Security Bits — 16 April 2023
Deep Dive 1 — Opera’s ‘VPN’ is Useful but Poorly Named Opera made some news by expanding out their free in-browser security feature they call a VPN to iOS, this makes the feature truly cross-platform, covering Windows, Mac, Android, and now iOS. This news triggered me to look into the feature before linking to the […]
Continue readingSecurity Bits — 23 December 2022 
Feedback & Followups Listener and community feedback, developments in recently covered stories, and developments in long-running stories we’re tracking over time. 
Apple have released their opt-in new Advanced Data Protection for iCloud , but only in the US for now — appleinsider.com/… At least initially, enabling ADP could complicate the setup of new devices […]
Security Bits — 11 December 2022 Deep Dives on Eufy Credibility Problems and Apple New Security Features
Feedback & Followups Listener and community feedback, developments in recently covered stories, and developments in long-running stories we’re tracking over time. The Twitter Chaos Continues: 
EU Commissioner Thierry Breton has warned Twitter that it needs to bring its moderation practices up to speed before the Digital Services Act (DSA) goes into effect next year […]
Security Bits — 27 November 2022
Feedback & Followups Listener and community feedback, developments in recently covered stories, and developments in long-running stories we’re tracking over time. The long-running case against Google led by most state Attorneys General over its misleading location settings (turning off location tracking didn’t actually stop Google tracking your location!) has resulted in the largest-ever settlement […]
# Security Bits — 27 August 2022
Feedback & Followups Listener and community feedback, developments in recently covered stories, and developments in long-running stories we’re tracking over time. 
US offers reward “up to $10 million” for information about the Conti gang — nakedsecurity.sophos.com/… (This is the gang behind the notorious hack of the Irish Health Service Executive during COVID) Pegasus […]
Is Apple’s Trade-In Program Program Any Good?
How Much are My Devices Worth? Apple Trade In Site If you’ve bought an Apple product in the past couple of years, you’ve probably noticed that they have the option to trade in an old device to offset the cost of your new machine. I had noticed it when it was first introduced as an […]
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CCATP #722 – Tom Merritt on the Past, Present, and Future of Messaging
This week’s guest on Chit Chat Across the Pond is Tom Merritt, host of the Daily Tech News Show, Cord Killers, Know a Little More, Sword and Laser and more podcasts than I can count. He’s also a science fiction author with his book series Pilot X tommerrittbooks.com. I asked Tom to come on Chit […]
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