Apple & Mac Musings

Just because you're surfing the web on a Mac doesn't mean you can't get infected by malware. Here are five things you can do to limit your vulnerability and make things as hard as possible on the bad guys. 1. Disable Browser Plug-ins Adobe's Flash plug-in for web browsers is one of the most common ways for hackers to attack Macs on the web. You should uninstall Flash if you don't need it. Adobe has instructions here: https://helpx.adobe.com/flash-player/kb/uninstall-flash-player-mac-os.html If you find that you can't get by without Flash, never click on a website notice that your Flash needs to be updated. Hackers have used these notices to get users to install fake Flash updaters containing malware. Instead, use the Flash update option in System Preferences to check for updates. To check if your Flash needs to be updated, click the black apple in the menu bar at the upper left-hand corner of the screen and choose System Preferences. Then click on Flash in...

Do auto-playing videos on web pages cause you to constantly mute browser tabs? Are you forced to keep your Mac's volume muted because of them? Here's how to turn off auto-play videos in each of the three most popular Mac browsers. How to Stop Auto-play web videos in Safari:  Quit Safari. Open Terminal (you can find it on your hard drive in Applications/Utilities). Enter the following commands. Each is a single line regardless of how they break on screen. If you aren't comfortable using Terminal, it's usually easier to copy and paste them: defaults write com.apple.Safari "com.apple.Safari.ContentPageGroupIdentifier.WebKit2RequiresUserGestureForMediaPlayback" -bool true defaults write com.apple.Safari WebKitVideoPlaybackRequiresUserGesture -bool true Quit Terminal. Open Safari and test with a website that has auto-playing videos. You can still play videos by clicking on them. To reverse the changes, quit Safari, open Terminal, and enter this comm...