Tag Archives: Apple

Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Latest iPhone Update May Fix Dropped Calls Problem

Do you own an iPhone 12 or 13? Have you been dealing with dropped calls? If so then Apple has good news and a fix for that. Simply upgrade to iOS 15.11 and you should be good to go.

15.11 is a minor update that only contains a single entry in the change log. Literally the only thing it does is to improve call performance.

The update isn’t terribly large at just 385MB and even if you haven’t yet experienced any performance or call quality issues it wouldn’t be a bad idea to upgrade in a bid to head them off.

It should also be noted that Apple’s handling of the issue has been absolutely spectacular. Customers complained about an issue and Apple did what Apple usually does. They didn’t spend a lot of time studying the issue. They didn’t complain or make excuses and they simply sprang into action and put people on the task of making it right.

This is the reason Apple customers are so incredibly loyal. In fact it has been said before that Apple doesn’t really have customers they have fans. Die hard absolutely devoted fans. Few other companies in the world can make that claim and everybody wants to replicate the Apple magic.

The good news it that it’s possible. Just be like Apple. Treat your customers like they matter more than anything in the world. Take them and their complaints and suggestions seriously. Go the extra mile and then go a little farther than that when you’re resolving an issue for them.

Apple’s reputation certainly wasn’t built overnight and the company has had their share of missteps but if you’re looking for a company to emulate to strengthen your own you could do a lot worse than Apple. Kudos to the hardworking Apple engineers for knocking another one out of the park.

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Legacy Contacts Shares Data From Those Who Have Passed

The internet has been around for a while at this point and it has brought to mind an issue we’ve never had to deal with until now.

What happens to your digital “stuff” when you die? Does it just go away? Does it simply become inaccessible?

In the here and now the answer has been yes. That’s exactly what happens.

Unless your family and loved ones have access to your accounts and know your passwords there’s simply no way they can access your data after you have died. That matters because there are very few people who make use of the traditional family photo album. Most of us keep our family photos online and usually on the cloud.

Apple understand that and they’re making some small but important changes on that front. In the near future Apple will allow you to pass on your iCloud data to your chosen people when you die. The most recent iOS update contains the first step along that path containing a new “right of survivorship” element.

The new Digital Legacy program was announced earlier this year (2021). With the new program users will be able to designate up to five people as Legacy Contacts. In the event of your death the people you have listed as Legacy Contacts will be able to access any data and personal information you have stored in the iCloud.

To activate Digital Legacy provisions users on the Legacy Contact List will need to provide proof of death and an access key to access your information. Those changes will be available as of iOS 15.2. There has been no word from Apple about when a comparable feature will be available for macOS. With the direction the company is moving in you can bet we’ll be hearing about it soon.

Kudos to Apple for making the change. This brings them into alignment with moves that Facebook and Google have already made.

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Zero Day Bug Found In MacOS

A new Zero Day vulnerability in macOS has been discovered. The flaw impacts all macOS versions up to the latest release Big Sur. The bug was found by Park Minchan an independent security researcher and is tied to the way that macOS processes inteloc files. The processing methodology allows an attacker to embed malicious commands which the system will execute without any warnings or prompts visible to the user of the targeted machine.

Interloc is short for “internet location files” and have the extension “*.interloc”

A recently published SSD Secure Disclosure advisory had this to say about the newly discovered flaw:

“A vulnerability in macOS Finder allows files whose extension is inetloc to execute arbitrary commands. These files can be embedded inside emails which if the user clicks on them will execute the commands embedded inside them without providing a prompt or warning to the user.”

In this particular instance Apple botched the fix quietly patching the issue without assigning it a CVE identification number.

Unfortunately the fix was only partial and at present the bug can still be exploited in some instances as described below:

“Newer versions of macOS (from Big Sur) have blocked the file:// prefix (in the com.apple.generic-internet-location) however they did a case matching causing File:// or fIle:// to bypass the check. We have notified Apple that FiLe:// (just mangling the value) doesn’t appear to be blocked, but have not received any response from them since the report has been made. As far as we know, at the moment, the vulnerability has not been patched.”

Park Minchan developed a proof of concept that demonstrates how the bug could be exploited but to date no threat actors have been discovered exploiting the flaw in the wild. It is just a matter of time however. A flaw like this represents a serious weakness in the security of the OS.

Be aware that the easiest way to exploit the bug is via malicious links embedded in emails so make sure your employees are aware of the risks.

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Apple Has Released iOS 15 With New Features

Apple recently released iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 for its phone/pad products. The latest update brings a number of new features to Apple users.

Here’s a quick overview:

Improvements to Do Not Disturb

This feature has been re-branded as “Focus” and it silences your phone or tablet in a bid to help limit interruptions when you’re in a meeting, busy focused on a particular task or while you’re sleeping.

The difference is that Focus introduces modes that are auto-enabled based on different actions. It syncs between all your Apple devices provided that they’re all running the latest version of the OS. When Focus state is activated on your phone it will auto-activate on your Watch, your desktop PC, and your iPad. Very handy.

Best of all is that you can set exemptions that allow certain contacts to get through so you can be interrupted but only by the contacts you choose.

Live Text

This is a really cool feature. It allows you to pull text from a photo and make it actionable. If you see a flyer on a store window you can take a picture of it and then tap the phone number on the flyer to make a call for instance.

Improved Facetime

Once you upgrade you’ll be able to FaceTime with anyone including Windows and Android users. This works even though there is no FaceTime app for Android or Windows. To use the new feature you’ll send a link to Android/Windows users that will open a FaceTime session in a browser window.

To do this just open your FaceTime app and select “Create Link.” The iOS share sheet will appear and from there you can send the link to whomever you like.

There are plenty of other new features in the latest update but in our view these are the biggest and most exciting. Update to the latest version and check them out at your earliest convenience. This update is well worth prioritizing.

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Update Apple Devices Soon For Important Security Patch

Apple released a very important security update today. The update fixes a pair of zero-day vulnerabilities that have been spotted in use in the wild to attack both Macs and iPhones. One of the two has been used to install the Pegasus spyware onto iPhones.

These two vulnerabilities are being tracked as CVE-2021-30860 and CVE-2021-30858 respectively. Both vulnerabilities allow attackers to create malicious documents which can be used to execute commands when opened on vulnerable devices.

CVE-2021-30860 is an integer overflow bug in CoreGrapics. It was discovered by CitizenLabs and it allows attackers to craft poisoned PDF documents that execute commands when opened on devices running either iOS or macOS.

CVE-2021-30858 is a WebKit vulnerability that allows attackers to create a malicious web page that executes commands on vulnerable devices running either iOS or macOS. That is any time vulnerable devices visit the poisoned page.

Apple stresses that both of these have been seen in use in the wilds which makes the application of Apple’s latest security patch a high priority.

Apple has struggled against zero-day vulnerabilities in 2021. So far the company has scrambled to address more than a dozen such vulnerabilities on macOS and iOS. That is compared to eleven found that targeted Windows and Android devices.

Consider the nature of these security flaws and the fact that they’re currently being exploited by hackers around the world. So downloading and applying this security patch is something that should be given top priority by anyone with Apple devices connected to your corporate network.

Kudos to the company for their rapid response. We hope however that the volume of zero-day exploits will begin to taper off in the near future. At this point it is unclear whether this is a sign of things to come and something that represents a larger and more disturbing trend or if it’s just a run of bad luck for the tech giant.

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