It's time to secure the Apple enterprise

It’s not unreasonable to assume that war in Ukraine will generate a wave of cyberattacks. That means every business or personal computer user should audit their existing security protections, particularly for companies that have embraced the hybrid workplace.

While larger enterprises usually employ Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) and security consultants to manage such tasks, what follows is useful advice for Mac, iPad, and iPhone users seeking to start such an audit.  

Take a password audit

I’m hoping most Apple users use Keychain. It has a couple of useful features to help check your passwords, and now is a very good time to use them.

• On a Mac, open Safari Preferences>Passwords (Settings>Passwords on iOS/iPad) and review the list you’ll find there.
• You’ll see passwords for all your sites. You may see a warning triangle beside some of these.
• This triangle shows you sites for which you may be reusing passwords, or passwords that may have appeared in data leaks.

In both cases, you should change these; just select the service, and then choose Change Password on Website. Apple will then try to direct you to the account page for that site where you can change your password or delete your account.

When creating a new password, do make use of Keychain’s automated password generation facility which will create stronger passwords. You’ll find more information on Keychain here.

For most Apple users, the most important passcode is the one they use for their iCloud/Apple ID.

You should make certain that your iCloud/Apple ID passcode is unique and hard to guess. It is also good practice to change the password regularly. When you do, you’ll need to input your new password across all your devices, which is a drag, but think about all the personal information you store there to help justify the effort.