2021.01.31 - Emergency Notification

Hiya friends,

Although I’ve got a full episode on the way that’s do to drop later this week — it’s a deep dive into secure routers — today’s email blast is more about an urgent recommendation:

Please update your iOS devices today. Now, if possible.

Specifically, please update these models:

• iPhone 6s and later

• iPad Air 2 and later,

• iPad mini 4 and later

• iPod touch (7th generation)

This should bring any modern iPad or iPhone up to iOS 14.4 and fix the three critical bugs that Apple was alerted to by “anonymous” researchers. Apple’s announcement was posted earlier this week.

I put the word in quotes because it’s assumed that researchers at Google - who just published a report on one of these exploits - are responsible for notifying Apple. Why Apple isn’t giving credit is odd to me. We’ll see how this plays out, I suppose. Most notably, Apple hasn’t detailed how widespread the problem is.

Assume that it IS widespread, to be safe.

In the meantime, if you have friends who are journalists, whistleblowers, researchers, academics, or who work in politics or justice anywhere in the world, please: ask them to also update their devices.

Here’s a news story from just last month (December 2020) that explains WHY this specific update from Apple is so important for everyone to install.

Otherwise, my friends, have a happy Sunday. Enjoy the weekend or, if you need to work today like me, enjoy your work. Helping others feels good. Enjoy the satisfaction from that.

Cheers from the Pacific Northwest.

More soon.

Popular Past Issues:

• Which secure routers to purchase and WHY.

• How to remove your personal data from the web.

• My 2021 recommendations on the best VPN providers.

• My favorite, free tool to keep email addresses private.

• A crash course on keeping your devices updated.

Product Recommendations

These are the devices and services that I personally use. I pay for everything you see listed here. I made these choices after much research and recommendations from tech industry colleagues.

• The online backup software I use: iDrive (affiliate link)

• The VPN software that I use: Nord VPN (affiliate link)

• The email anonymizer that I use: 33Mail (affiliate link)

• The secure router I use at my office: Gryphon (affiliate link)

• The secure router I use at my home: Synology (affiliate link)

• The service I use to block spam calls/texts: Uncall (affiliate link)

Transparency Statement

Some of the products and services I recommend pay me a small commission if you decide to purchase them. Making purchases based on my recommendations never costs you extra. In fact, it can sometimes save you money because I get access to certain discounts which aren’t available to the general public.

It’s a win-win: you save money and help me earn an additional salary from my writing. Thank you, in advance, for that. It’s an easy way for anyone to support my work, research, and expertise. Affiliate links will be shown like this → (affiliate link) to make them easy to identify.

In case you’re curious:

1. I’ve purchased, owned, tested, and/or deeply researched every single thing I recommend.

2. I’m never paid to sell software or hardware to you.

3. I retain 100% editorial control over everything I write.

4. The companies, products, or services that I recommend don’t know that I’m going to mention them.