Encryption Articles on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

Daily Update for May 10, 2013

by Steven Sande (May 10th, 2013)

It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player ...

Apple receives iPhone unlock requests from law enforcement

by Steven Sande (May 10th, 2013)

The encryption on your iPhone is apparently secure enough that law enforcement agencies are waiting in line to have Apple "crack" the lock and provide data to be used as evidence. According to a report by CNET, Apple has the ability to decrypt seized iPhones and has created a waiting list to handle ...

Daily Update for April 4, 2013

by Steven Sande (Apr 4th, 2013)

VPN for the rest of us: Interview with WiTopia

by Erica Sadun (Dec 3rd, 2012)

VPN, aka Virtual Private Network, is a technology that lets you securely share data across public networks. For the most part, when I think VPN, I typically imagine work-related corporate or federal government accounts, or people accessing the net in countries with excessive government ...

Silent Circle to offer secure, private iPhone operation

by Steven Sande (Oct 12th, 2012)

Two former Navy SEALs have teamed up with cryptographers including PGP developer Phil Zimmermann to develop an iPhone app to provide military-level encryption for unlimited VoIP phone calls, texts, email and video for US$20 per month. Silent Circle debuts on the App Store next week, filled with ...

Mountain Lion 101: Finder encryption via contextual menu (updated)

by Mike Schramm (Jul 27th, 2012)

[Post updated, see below.] Whole-drive encryption isn't one of the sexiest features in OS X, but it's nice to know it's there. FileVault 2 (introduced in Lion; the original FileVault began in 10.3 Panther) can be very useful, especially for Mac users with sensitive information on their hard ...

DropKey app encrypts Mac files, free through Sunday

by Steven Sande (May 18th, 2012)

WellRed Apps launched its DropKey file encryption app for Mac last month, but realized that there's one issue with gaining widespread acceptance -- it takes two to tango, and it takes two copies of DropKey (one each for sender and recipient) to send files securely. The company had been giving ...

Passwords stored in plain text after Lion update

by Kelly Hodgkins (May 7th, 2012)

Legacy FileVault users (those who used FileVault before Lion) running a recently updated version of Mac OS X Lion should consider changing their login passwords. According to a report in ZDNet, an Apple programmer inadvertently left a debug flag in the latest 10.7.3 version of Mac OS X that turns ...

Oneshar.es: For those messages that need to stay secret

by Steven Sande (Mar 2nd, 2012)

There are some things that you just don't want to send through regular email: your credit card number, your Social Security Number (if you live in the USA), and other messages that you really don't want anyone else to read. A new service and accompanying iPhone app, OneShar.es (US$0.99) provides a ...

Apple FileVault 2 encryption cracked, but don't panic

by Steven Sande (Feb 3rd, 2012)

FileVault 2 is a feature of Mac OS X 10.7 Lion that provides a way to encrypt a full disk drive so that it can only be used by those who know a password ... until now, that is. Passware, a company that makes forensic software used to recover lost passwords or open encrypted files to police and ...

FaceTime calls are encrypted, HIPAA compliant

by Megan Lavey-Heaton (Sep 21st, 2011)

This isn't the issue from last fall, but Apple addressed questions regarding FaceTime security to ZDNet. An Apple representative assured the site that the FaceTime conversation stream is encrypted from end to end, and each FaceTime session has unique session keys for each user. What this does ...

Ask TUAW Video Edition: VPN services

by Justin Esgar (May 3rd, 2011)

It's the first Tuesday in May, which means it's time for another edition of Ask TUAW, the video version. Today, Brad writes to us with a security question: I love using Wi-Fi where available, but I am always leery of doing anything requiring secure access as I don't know who is on the network ...

Square encryption hinders Visa deal

by Kelly Hodgkins (Apr 29th, 2011)

Square is running into some problems with its new investment partner Visa. An executive at the mobile payments company confirmed it is re-working its system to encrypt credit card data on the fly. Square now uses a dongle that plugs into a headphone jack and an iOS application to process credit ...

Staying Safe: securing your wireless connection

by Michael Jones (Jul 1st, 2009)

Recently, we reported on AT&T's push to make it easier for iPhone & iPod touch users to connect to their Wi-Fi Hot Spots. One of our readers, Jamie Phelps, pointed out on his blog that AT&T's Wi-Fi service is not actually a "secure connection," as is advertised in various places on their ...

9 things I learned from almost losing my MacBook Air

by Steven Sande (Jun 5th, 2009)

I swear, getting old is not a lot of fun. Last night, I taught a class in data security for home and small business users at our local community college. There were a lot of good questions from the community education program students, so the class ended quite late and I was still answering ...