Another year, another MAJOR pain in the ass breach of personal information!

Just a heads up for those with ATT or TMobile accounts: They have had a massive breach of accounts and pwds, and SSN… and more.\

ATT Breach info

Tom’s Guide info about TMobile

Putting a freeze on your credit protects you from unauthorized criminals opening loans and creditcards. Plus who know what other scams.

Check out freezing your credit reports and get accounts with the three main credit bureaus per Experian credit freeze info page:

Experian

Trans Union

Equifax

*If you fill out for online, each bureau will want an account if you don’t have one, along with texting you codes or links to verify. Make sure to make an account and pwd with a password manager like 1Password, which allows notes for things like Pins or Secret Question Answer.

A friend referred me to her friend for some WordPress support. While most of the issue was PEBKAC, I learned that there are still dated-looking WordPress sites, that use vulnerable PHP and some wonky CSS custom editing to get solutions. While I was able to hard edit a PHP file and make the client changes, I refused to update the PHP version of her cPanel site because I was not the theme creator and not comfortable making a change that could result in a borked theme or live site used for business income. I left the requested work* resolved and completed, and further changes to the “footer”.
But the client never paid, did not ask for invoice nor had I a chance to bill for the time after cancelling any further support. I’ll chalk it up for no good deed goes unpunished.

The lesson here is not only being leery of unstable business owners that fail to understand, aka ignore, their website underpinnings, but the main problem was actually caused by the website user/owner clicking a feature that resulted in a change to editing the page. Visual is versus Text. So I recommend, take a course in Beginning WordPress content creation. Knowing some HTML is even better. Plus if you fire/cancel your Websupport person, you better realize, they won’t ever help again.

Apple released Mac OS 15 back in September and recently updated to 15.1 which fixed some issues…and alot more features but waiting on the Apple Intelligence along with Mac Mini M4, iMac M4 and MacbookPro M4 models.

From Apples press release page on the update to MacOS Sequoia 15.1

This update introduces the first set of features powered by Apple Intelligence, the personal intelligence system that unlocks powerful new ways to communicate, work, and express yourself, all while protecting your data with an extraordinary step forward for privacy in AI. This release also includes drag and drop support for iPhone Mirroring and other features, bug fixes, and security updates for your Mac.
Apple Intelligence (Mac with M1 and later)

Writing Tools

Writing Tools are available nearly everywhere you type, allowing you to rewrite, proofread, and summarize text right in the app you’re working in

Rewrite suggests different versions of your text so you can choose which combination of flow and wording you like best

Proofread lets you view suggested improvements to what you’re writing, like grammar fixes and language refinements

Summarize allows you to select text wherever you’re writing and generate a high-quality summary

Siri

A new look and feel includes a glowing light that wraps around the edge of your screen, animates responsively to the sound of your voice, and lets you keep scrolling or typing while you talk to Siri

Type to Siri when you don’t want to speak a request out loud

Richer language understanding enables Siri to follow along if you stumble over your words or change your mind mid-sentence

Conversational context is maintained over the course of a session, so you can refer more naturally to something you said in a recent request or something Siri mentioned in a recent response

Product knowledge helps you get answers to thousands of questions about the features and settings on your Apple products

Voice enhancements make Siri sound more natural, expressive, and clear

Photos

Memory movies can be created by describing the story you want to see

Photos search lets you find photos and videos simply by describing what you’re looking for

Clean Up removes distractions in your photos

Notifications

Notification summaries make it easy to catch up on your notifications with a glanceable summary of the most important information

Reduce Interruptions is a new Focus that ensures the most urgent notifications get through to you while silencing potential distractions

Additional Features

Smart Reply in Mail and Messages help you quickly respond to messages with suggested responses

Transcription summaries in Notes give you an intelligently created summary of the transcript from your audio recording

iPhone Mirroring

Drag and drop support lets you seamlessly move files, photos, videos, and more between your Mac and iPhone

AirPods

Hearing Protection feature helps users minimize exposure to loud environmental noise across listening modes (available in the United States and Canada)

Features require AirPods Pro 2 with firmware version 7B19 or later. All features may not be available for all countries or regions, for more information visit: https://apple.com/airpods-pro/feature-availability/

This update also includes the following improvements and bug fixes:

Option to automatically download and install games and apps to an external disk drive

Game Center friend invites can be sent directly from the Contacts app and Friend Suggestions and receivers can see the invites in the inbox in Settings

Apple announces no longer supporting the Airport products.

“We’re discontinuing the Apple AirPort base station products. They will be available through Apple.com, Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers while supplies last.”

RIP AE.

Seems someone was using my domain name (not my domain server, that is hosted by InMotion and my WordPress is updated regularly) to spam a phishing URL (it was someone named Les at Performance Sales that sent me the email…but I couldn’t verify it that was a spammer trying to use my domain…since the contact phone number was Illinois but fax number was in Nevada.

And his website of “performancesales dot com” was some marketing site for … well his phone and info didn’t match their site so I decided not to reply. If it is legit, maybe Les will visit here and read this.

The link sent was clearly deceptive… a space was between the www in is was ww w.macanix.com. This was also a doc file name but no attachment. Another clue, hover over the URL and its nothing as it appears. I copied that, and pasted into virustotal.com URL checker and bingo, malicious.

(I won’t post the malicious URL but it goes to a walstinefa domain which is 403-forbidden.)

If you aren’t sure of a URL sent to you, Visit virus total and paste it in.

Also, whether on a mac or windows, always use some antimalware. I recommend purchasing Malwarebytes Antimalware.

..so far, no issues. Though I still find that Apple’s Sierra updates KEEP setting my IPv6 to Automatically, even after I have set it to Local-Link only.

Combo updates always!

Apple direct link here

First time I’ve seen this: an iMac user had an update from Apple pushed (10.12.2) for Sierra. Well, the screen turned black after update was done and login. Mouse moved around.

Solution was to restore back to last Time Machine backup (took several hours). Other suggestions (after the fact and not going to risk) was to blindly enter pwd. It may be that Apple’s installer has a random/long time bug that wants  the user to login but the screen is black (keyboard still works, you can hear errors if you type something and hit enter). So if you get this same screen with mouse functioning, try to enter your password. It might even want your login ID and pwd.

Thanks Apple. Hope your 2017 fixes this…