Note: This book updates and replaces Glenn’s earlier title Take Control of Securing Your Mac. It updates the information in that book and expands it to cover iPhones and iPads too.
The digital world is riddled with danger, even as Apple has done a fairly remarkable job at keeping our Macs, iPhones, and iPads safe. But the best security strategy is staying abreast of past risks and anticipating future ones. This book gives you all the insight and directions you need to ensure your Apple devices and their data are safe. It’s up to date with macOS 26 Tahoe, iOS 26, and iPadOS 26.
You’ll learn about the enhanced Advanced Data Protection option for iCloud services, allowing you to keep all your private data inaccessible not just to thieves and unwarranted government intrusion, but even to Apple! Also get the rundown on Lockdown Mode to deter direct network and phishing attacks, passkeys and hardware secure keys for the highest level of security for Apple Account and website logins, and Mac-specific features such as encrypted startup volumes and FileVault’s login protection process.
Security and privacy are tightly related, and this book helps you understand how macOS, iOS, and iPadOS have increasingly compartmentalized and protected your personal data, and how to allow only the apps you want to access specific folders, your contacts, and other information.
Here’s what this book has to offer:
- Master the privacy settings on your Mac, iPhone, and iPad
- Calculate your level of risk and your tolerance for it
- Use Apple’s Stolen Device Protection feature for iPhone that deflects thieves who extract your passcode through coercion or misdirection.
- Learn why you’re asked to give permission for apps to access folders and personal data on your Mac
- Moderate access to your audio, video, screen actions, and other hardware inputs and outputs
- Get to know the increasing layers of system security deployed over the past few years
- Prepare against a failure or error that might lock you out of your device
- Share files and folders securely over a network and through cloud services
- Upgrade your iCloud data protection to use end-to-end encryption
- Control other low-level security options to reduce the risk of someone gaining physical access to your Mac—or override them to install system extensions
- Understand FileVault encryption and protection for Mac, and avoid getting locked out
- Investigate the security of a virtual private network (VPN) to see whether you should use one
- Learn how the Secure Enclave in Macs with a T2 chip or M-series Apple silicon affords hardware-level protections
- Dig into ransomware, the biggest potential threat to Mac users (though rare in practice)
- Discover recent security and privacy technologies, such as Lockdown Mode and passkeys
- Learn why your iPhone may restart automatically if it’s been idle for several days
Take Control Books Executive Editor Glenn Fleishman spent 30 years writing for publications like The Atlantic, Fast Company, The Economist, The New York Times, Macworld, and TidBITS. Glenn now focuses his time on Take Control Books, Six Colors (as a columnist), and his own micro-publishing endeavor, Aperiodical, where he writes books about type, printing, comics, and language history, like Six Centuries of Type & Printing and How Comics Are Made. You can find Glenn on Mastodon and Bluesky. Reach him by email at glenn@glennf.com.
What’s New in Version 1.1.1
Apple hasn’t fully documented all the changes to FileVault Key Recovery storage in macOS 26 Tahoe. I’ve discovered and been informed of some additional details, and have updated “FileVault Protection (Mac).”
I also added a couple of notes to distinguish between the FileVault Recovery Key, created within macOS to aid recovery of your locked startup volume, and the Apple Account Recovery Key, created on one of your devices to aid recovery of your Apple Account!
What Was New in Version 1.1
Since the previous release of this book, Apple released iOS 26, iPadOS 26, and macOS 26 Tahoe. This new year-based numbering system is sequentially after iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS 15 Sequoia. This version updates the book to account for a number of minor changes, largely relating to the new Liquid Glass interface.
Here’s what else was new or changed:
- FileVault on by default: Starting in macOS 26 Tahoe, FileVault is enabled after you upgrade to that version or in fresh Tahoe installations. See “FileVault Protection (Mac).” Changes appear throughout the book as well.
- No more iCloud escrow for FileVault Recovery Key: To reduce the risk of criminal and government attacks on Macs, Apple no longer offers iCloud-based FileVault Recovery Key storage. See “Consider Security and Integrity with the Recovery Key.” Changes appear elsewhere in the book related to this.
- Disable Touch ID or Face ID: I added a short section that explains how to disables these features on demand or entirely. See “Disable Touch ID or Face ID.”
- Consistency on external hardware control: Apple harmonized its interface and options for iOS/iPadOS and macOS for the choices you have about external hardware plugged in or inserted, such as via USB or an SD Card slot. See “Control Plugging in Hardware.”
- Automatic idle iPhone restart: I document a security feature added in 2024 to iOS that automatically restarts an unlocked iPhone if it’s been idle for four or more days. See “Automatic Restart After Four Unlocked Days.”
Another sad update is that the world has become more authoritarian in the last year than perhaps any one-year period in modern times. As a result, I recommend you ratchet up your risk level when considering the integrity and privacy of your data while at home and particularly while traveling, even within a country you reside in, are a citizen of, and that you formerly never thought there would be a data privacy risk traveling within.
What Changed from a Previous Book
This book replaces a previous title, Take Control of Securing Your Mac. It now covers macOS 15 Sequoia and has been fully expanded with coverage of iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 security. All three operating system updates were released in September 2024. If you read any edition of the previous title, here’s what’s new:
- Protecting your iPhone & iPad: A new chapter covers three issues unique to iPhone and/or iPad. In this chapter I cover Apple’s Stolen Device Protection feature for iPhone that deflects thieves who extract your passcode through coercion or misdirection. See "Protect Your iPhone & iPad."
- Centralizing Mac features: This overhauled edition now locates highly Mac-specific security and data privacy features into a single section, "Fortify Your Mac."
- Gatekeeper tightens further: Apple added protections to their Gatekeeper technology to make it harder to launch “unsigned” apps from running—ones that developers didn’t pass through basic Apple oversight. See "Override Gatekeeper."
- Apple improves Private Wi-Fi address: A feature designed to deter tracking of your devices by their unique network adapter addresses, used by routers when you connect on a network, was improved in the latest releases. I explain the feature in this version of the book. See "Ways to Protect a Wi-Fi Adapter’s Address"
- Sequoia adds system extension removal help: Before Sequoia, it was a real pain to find and remove system extensions required by certain hardware and software, like RAID drives, video source extenders, and anti-malware software. Now, you can find them all in a list in System Settings. See "Manage System Extensions."
Posted by Joe Kissell on November 20, 2024
Glenn Fleishman joined host Chuck Joiner on MacVoices to talk about several of his latest updates.
In [part one](https://macvoices.com/macvoices-24260-keyboards-comics-and-taking-control-of-your-apple-account-with-glenn-fleishman-1/, Glenn covers some of his personal projects and talks about Take Control of Your Apple Account.
In part two, Glenn discusses Keep Safe Using Mobile Tech.
In part three, Glenn covers Take Control of Securing Your Apple Devices, Take Control of Find My and AirTags, and Take Control of FaceTime and Messages.
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