August 22, 2022

There was a big report Friday on a security update from Apple. While security updates are nothing new for some reason this one was reported in the media more than most others. Apple does not give much information on what the updates are fixing, that way they don’t help people who are looking to exploit it. However this last security update was not as big of an issue as some other that don’t get the public awareness. 

Generally speaking security updates fix some know exploit or possible exploit, they are using done within the current OS. This one was for the iOS and iPad current software. The MacBooks and iMacs are not affected. Also it is usually within one OS, in this case iOS 15, if you had an older OS it might not need patches since the software is different. 

This brings me to a common question I get from clients about passwords. Quite often when working with clients they opt to not have a computer remember a password thinking thats the safest option. I agree that it stops someone from getting into your info if they know your computer password. However some security issues in the past involve possible key tracking, so whatever you type could be captured. If you do have password autofill then there would be no keystrokes to track.

Apple generally supports the MacOS software about 3-4yrs, after that is when you start losing these little updates. So updates for one OS is more than likely not going to be the same for another.

Device OS’s for iPads and iPhones tend to be more on the line of 2-3yrs.

In my talks with clients I usually suggest doing updates since they fix bugs within OS’s, but hold off on doing upgrades since they tend to change a lot of software requirements until you determine your software is safe on the upgrade.