The Mac Security Blog
Every once in a while there’s some good news to share in the security arena, and we’re very happy to be able to end the news with a bit of positive information. It seems that spam levels are dropping, with October of this year being 18% lower than September. This was apparently due to the closing of a big spammer called Spamit in late September. Going further, Q4 2010 has seen even better numbers, with early December being about 30% less than September. Average levels of spam are around 83% for the quarter, compared with 88% for Q3 2010.
Of course, this means that 83% of all e-mail is spam, so it’s not yet time to get rid of your spam filters. (Such as Intego Personal Antispam, part of the company’s Internet Security Barrier suite.) But these trends mean that your spam filter will have just a bit less work to do.
If you’re a Mac user, you are probably looking for ways to save time when you work with your Mac. MacPromo has come up with the ultimate Mac time-saver bundle, featuring 10 utilities that will help you get more done on your Mac, making your work more efficient and leaving more time for what you enjoy. Take advantage of this special Cyber Monday bundle.
MacPromo’s Mac time-saver bundle includes some of the best, most popular and highest-rated Mac utilities. Each of the 10 programs gives you new ways to work with your Mac, saving time when typing, reading e-mail, downloading files, organizing and renaming files and much more.
The Mac time-saver bundle is an unbeatable offer. This bundle, available now through December 31, contains 10 applications that provide enhanced productivity features for Mac users. Available for only $49.99, this bundle is more than 85% off the total price of the programs, if purchased individually, a saving of $327.
“All Mac users are delighted to find ways to work more efficiently,” said Laurent Marteau, CEO Intego. “This is a great opportunity to find the best Mac utilities that streamline everyday tasks. And we’ve even added a great game as a bonus for everyone who buys the bundle.”
Save $327 with the Mac Time-Saver Bundle
The MacPromo Mac time-saver bundle contains the latest versions of the following programs:
• TypeIt4Me, Let your Mac do half your typing
• PathFinder, The power-user’s Finder replacement
• DragThing, Tidy up your desktop with the original dock
• Name Mangler, Rename files quickly and easily
• Personal Antispam, Keep your inbox spam-free
• MacFreelance, Easy billing and invoice software for Mac
• Keyboard Maestro, Increase your productivity with powerful macros
• Personal Backup, Back up files, synchronize folders, and clone startup volumes
• Folx Pro, Speed up all your downloads
• CuteClips, Clipboard history for everybody
Get the Mac time-saver bundle now at www.macpromo.com.
In addition to these 10 great programs, everyone who buys the MacPromo Mac time-saver bundle will receive a free copy of Aspyr’s Star Wars Empire at War, a $50 value. This is a great game that gives players the power to command an entire war for the Star Wars galaxy.
All of these programs are compatible with Mac OS X 10.6, Snow Leopard, as well as Mac OS X 10.5, Leopard.
Purchased separately, the programs in this bundle would cost $377, but in this limited-time offer, the bundle can be purchased for only $49.99, a saving of more than 85%! (Price in USD for US and Canada: prices may vary in other countries.)
The MacPromo Mac time-saver bundle is the second great Mac software bundle from Intego. It is available from the MacPromo web site, www.macpromo.com. It is not available in retail stores, and is only available online or by telephone from Intego. (See the MacPromo web site, www.macpromo.com, for phone numbers.)
In an extensive review on its website, TopTenREVIEWS looked at eight Mac antivirus programs and found VirusBarrier X6 to be the best program of its kind. Not only is the extensive review much more than many sites do when examining such software, but the site’s comparison of the eight programs looks in detail at the many features that make VirusBarrier X6 stand out. Intego is proud to be recognized as the best program in its class.
There are a couple of mistakes in the review, though. VirusBarrier X6 sells for $49, not $59 as the review says. And you can pause manual scans in the program: just press the Option key during a scan and the Stop button changes to Pause.
Note: some readers have pointed out that they cannot access the above review. There seems to be a problem with web sites outside the US accessing the site, so we’ve made PDFs of the review and the comparison that you can download if you’d like to see them.
Intego has released an update to VirusBarrier X6, the company’s program that protects Macs from malware and network threats. This update, version 10.6.10, offers a number of enhancements and performance improvements, improves overall stability, supports general compatibility issues, and addresses a number of other minor issues.
VirusBarrier X6 users can download the update through NetUpdate, Intego’s tool for updating its software. This update is free for all users of VirusBarrier X6.
Are your favorite iPhone apps sending personal information to advertisers? The Wall Street Journal looked at 101 iPhone and Android apps and found that more than half of them are sending such information to companies without users being aware, and, in many cases, in violation of the terms and conditions of the store selling the app.
The Wall Street Journal found that out of 101 popular apps, 56 sent the smartphone’s UDID (a unique identifier for a phone), 47 sent location information, and 5 sent age, gender or other personal information to developers or advertisers. With this UDID, advertisers or developers can keep track of phones very easily. This functions like a cookie on a web browser, except that it can’t be changed or deleted.
While this test was small, it looked at many popular apps. It was found that “the iPhone apps transmitted more data than the apps on phones using Google Inc.’s Android operating system.” For example:
Both the Android and iPhone versions of Pandora, a popular music app, sent age, gender, location and phone identifiers to various ad networks. iPhone and Android versions of a game called Paper Toss—players try to throw paper wads into a trash can—each sent the phone’s ID number to at least five ad companies. Grindr, an iPhone app for meeting gay men, sent gender, location and phone ID to three ad companies.
Both Apple and Google have conditions that require that users opt in before any such information is harvested, but this does not seem to be working. One developer claimed that he was unaware of any such restrictions, but this simply means that he did not read the developer documentation provided by Apple, where this is clearly spelled out.
The problem, though, is enforcing such rules. Apple claims to test all apps, but, apparently, they haven’t tested these apps, at least not enough to find what data they send. In addition, most of these apps don’t even provide any privacy policy information.
Unfortunately, there’s not much you can do about such apps. You can’t stop them from connecting to the Internet and sending information, unless you turn off your phone’s data access. And even if you do, it’s highly possible that many apps store such information to send when the phone is on and the apps are activated.
Apple has issued updates for AirPort devices – its AirPort Base Station and Time Capsule – patching several vulnerabilities in the software used to run these devices. Five vulnerabilities are fixed, four of which could result in denial of service or could lead to device restart, and one that could allow malicious users to access an FTP server if port-mapping is used.
The 12.3 MB update to AirPort is available via Software Update, or by download here. After installing the new version of AirPort Utility, users should run that application to apply the firmware updates to their AirPort devices.
Full information about this update is available here.