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Chapter 12 of “Take Control of Security for Mac Users” Available

It is by no means inevitable that you’ll suffer from data loss, malware, a network intrusion, a phishing attack, or identity theft, but the fact that you’re reading this indicates that you’re at least concerned that one of the above might happen. If you’ve followed Joe Kissell’s advice so far in “Take Control of Security for Mac Users,” the chances are lower, but there are no guarantees — as Joe says, “The combination of software bugs, human error, and clever attackers could take down the best of us.”

So, in Chapter 12, “Recover from a Disaster,” Joe provides the advice you need when you’re faced with one of these disasters. The most important thing to remember is Joe’s first step, “Don’t panic.”

Once you’re calm, Joe walks you through recovering from data loss with your backups (and even if, for some reason, you don’t have backups). He also talks about how to eradicate malware and protect yourself from future infections. If you’re concerned that someone might have accessed your Mac over the network, Joe explains how you can tell, and how to isolate your Mac and take the necessary steps to prevent future intrusions. Phishing attacks can be hard to identify too, but it’s important to assess the damage and repair it with the steps provided. Lastly, Joe turns his attention to what you need to do to deal with a case of full-fledged identity theft, where someone is using stolen personal information to impersonate you.

This is the final chapter in “Take Control of Security for Mac Users,” so I can’t in good conscience recommend that you become a TidBITS member now purely to read the pre-release chapticles. (There are lots of other good reasons!) These chapticles will remain online indefinitely for TidBITS members, of course, but we’re now heading into the final editing and production phases of publishing the full ebook for purchase by everyone in PDF, EPUB, and Mobipocket (Kindle) formats. I’ll say something when the full ebook is available for those who preferred to wait until the end.

Big thanks to the 2,872 TidBITS members who are now making it possible for TidBITS to keep bringing you our award-winning content every week — memberships have made all the difference for us. If you’re already a TidBITS member, log in to the TidBITS site using the email address from which you joined to read and comment on these chapters:

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