The Ontario Broker - Volume 22, Issue 2 - 36

COLUMNS
MAC ATTACK!
I HOPE YOU'VE UPDATED YOUR MACBOOK RECENTLY.
Earlier this year, news broke that the company had become
aware of two zero-day vulnerabilities affecting Macs, iPhones
and iPads.
For those unfamiliar with the term zero-day vulnerability,
this is a weakness that's discovered in a piece of software
that's already operating in the wild and the developer has
no awareness of the flaw at the time of its discovery-hence
they've had zero days to fix it. This is like finding out that after
years of living in a house, a ground floor window doesn't
actually lock. Worse yet, there's been confirmed cases of this
vulnerability being exploited-meaning muddy footprints were
found inside below your metaphorical window.
This is an obviously troubling situation. Mac released patches
for their devices, however, not all versions of their operating
systems got the patch. At the time of writing this, only their
most recent OS, Monterey, had been patched, leaving people
with older versions including Big Sur and Catalina (about 40% of
current Mac users) still exposed. To spell it out for people using
those older versions: you will continue to be exposed to risk
until you upgrade to Monterey.
This is a perfect illustration of why you should always keep
your computer up-to-date with the most recent OS. Apple's
36
neglect of their older operating systems has earned them
some bad press in the tech world, but hasn't yet spurred them
to action. And in the meantime, a huge chunk of Mac users
essentially could have strangers trapsing through their houses.
Escalating the situation again, the coverage of this issue
has undoubtedly been noticed by additional hackers, which
is like installing a flashing neon OPEN sign above those
unlocked windows. Often developers don't announce the
discovery of vulnerability until it's already been patched, so
that those who have automatic updates switched on will be
protected before potentially alerting new malicious actors
about it.
So, once again, update your devices to the latest OS as soon
as possible. In fact, update all your devices. And then turn on
automatic updates to stay updated. That's true no matter what
brand of devices you're using. What makes this incident unique
is Apple's seeming indifference to it, but aside from that, these
sorts of vulnerabilities being discovered, exploited and patched
is a very common occurrence, which is why if you're not going
to setup automatic updates, at the very least, don't hit snooze
on your computer's update alerts. And if you've noticed that
your liquor cabinet seems weirdly empty, check to see that all
your ground floor windows are locked.
THE ONTARIO BROKER
The Ontario Broker - Volume 22, Issue 2

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Ontario Broker - Volume 22, Issue 2
