Keep your Mac, iPhone, and iPad safe!
Version 1.1.1, published September 28, 2025
Secure your Mac, iPhone, or iPad against attacks from the internet, physical intrusion, and more with the greatest of ease. Glenn Fleishman guides you through protecting yourself from phishing, email, and other exploits, as well as network-based invasive behavior. Learn about built-in privacy settings, the Secure Enclave, FileVault, hardware encryption keys, sandboxing, privacy settings, Advanced Data Protection, Lockdown Mode, resetting your password when all hope seems lost, and much more.
The digital world is riddled with danger, even as Apple has done a fairly remarkable job at keeping our Macs, iPhones, and iPads safe. But the best security strategy is staying abreast of past risks and anticipating future ones. This book gives you all the insight and directions you need to ensure your Apple devices and their data are safe. It's up to date with macOS 26 Tahoe, iOS 26, and iPadOS 26.
You’ll learn about the enhanced Advanced Data Protection option for iCloud services, allowing you to keep all your private data inaccessible not just to thieves and unwarranted government intrusion, but even to Apple! Also get the rundown on Lockdown Mode to deter direct network and phishing attacks, passkeys and hardware secure keys for the highest level of security for Apple Account and website logins, and Mac-specific features such as encrypted startup volumes and FileVault’s login protection process.
Security and privacy are tightly related, and this book helps you understand how macOS, iOS, and iPadOS have increasingly compartmentalized and protected your personal data, and how to allow only the apps you want to access specific folders, your contacts, and other information.
Here’s what this book has to offer:
Master the privacy settings on your Mac, iPhone, and iPad
Calculate your level of risk and your tolerance for it
Use Apple’s Stolen Device Protection feature for iPhone that deflects thieves who extract your passcode through coercion or misdirection.
Learn why you’re asked to give permission for apps to access folders and personal data on your Mac
Moderate access to your audio, video, screen actions, and other hardware inputs and outputs
Get to know the increasing layers of system security deployed over the past few years
Prepare against a failure or error that might lock you out of your device
Share files and folders securely over a network and through cloud services
Upgrade your iCloud data protection to use end-to-end encryption
Control other low-level security options to reduce the risk of someone gaining physical access to your Mac—or override them to install system extensions
Understand FileVault encryption and protection for Mac, and avoid getting locked out
Investigate the security of a virtual private network (VPN) to see whether you should use one
Learn how the Secure Enclave in Macs with a T2 chip or M-series Apple silicon affords hardware-level protections
Dig into ransomware, the biggest potential threat to Mac users (though rare in practice)
Discover recent security and privacy technologies, such as Lockdown Mode and passkeys
Learn why your iPhone may restart automatically if it's been idle for several days
