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“Take Control of Security for Mac Users” Ready for Everyone

After serializing Joe Kissell’s “Take Control of Security for Mac Users” week by week for TidBITS members over the past few months, we’re pleased to announce that the final version of the 159-page book is now available for $15 (see ““Take Control of Security for Mac Users” Streaming in TidBITS,” 2 February 2015). So if you aren’t a TidBITS member who has already read every chapter, now’s your chance to get it; TidBITS members can keep reading on the TidBITS site, or can pick up a copy in PDF, EPUB, and Mobipocket (Kindle) formats for 30 percent off — click through to the Take Control site from your Member Benefits page to load the coupon.

Put simply, no Mac is an island — our Macs are constantly connected to the outside world and store our most important data: financial records, email communications, personal photos, and goodness knows what else. Allowing an Internet hacker, malware app, or Wi-Fi sniffer to compromise the security of your Mac and its data could have far-reaching consequences in your real life. Happily, with some common sense and appropriate precautions, you can increase your security without undue inconvenience. Topics in “Take Control of Security for Mac Users” include:

  • Determining your risk level (from 1 to 4)
  • Implementing essential quick security fixes
  • Controlling access to your Mac via a firewall
  • Managing local access to your data with user accounts
  • Sharing Mac resources like screens and files safely
  • Securing your home network and working securely on other networks
  • Protecting your Mac’s data from snoops and thieves
  • Keeping your iCloud data (such as email and photos!) safe
  • Deciding whether to use anti-malware software

Perhaps most important, you’ll also find advice about what to do if something bad happens, with suggestions about how to recover from data loss, a malware or phishing attack, a network intrusion, or identity theft.

Because security and privacy often blur together, we’ve also just published the second edition of Joe’s “Take Control of Your Online Privacy” (135 pages; $15). Concern about privacy is a spectrum, and we all hit it in different places. But it’s a fact that your online activities are being tracked and analyzed. Some of that is good — if you’re going to see ads, you’d probably prefer they were for products that interest you, but that targeting could result in you being charged higher prices or reveal an embarrassing medical condition. That’s just one example, but Joe has distilled all the questions we normal people have about privacy — and what you can do about
them! — into this book.

Because they go together like chocolate and peanut butter, if you buy both “Take Control of Security for Mac Users” and “Take Control of Your Online Privacy,” we’ll knock 20 percent off the price, dropping your cost from $30 to $24.

To read Joe’s full security and privacy trilogy (adding some creamy nougat!), you can include a copy of his best-selling “Take Control of Your Passwords” (normally $10 for 105 pages) in your order and save 30 percent, bringing the $40 cost down to only $28. This book also just received a minor update to keep it fresh for 2015, so you’ll get all the latest advice on building your password system.

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