Famously, on iOS devices iMessage messages are blue while SMS texts are green. But the actual differences are more extensive. In addition to allowing for longer message lengths and richer content sharing, iMessages are also encrypted, whereas SMS texts are not. Don’t send sensitive info over SMS.

If you backup an iPhone via Finder on a Mac, there should be an option to encrypt your backup. This provides an extra layer of security for the data pulled from your phone.

Ransomware detects the drives on an system that is infected and starts encrypting the files within those drives. Ransomware usually adds an extension to the encrypted files, such as .aaa, .micro, .encrypted, .xyz, .locky, .crypt, .cryptolocker, .vault, or .petya, to show that the files have been encrypted — the file extension used is unique to […]

PCs and Macs support full-disk encryption, which is a useful way to protect your data if your device is ever lost or stolen. On a Mac, enabling it is as simple as activating FileVault. On Windows, use Device Encryption or the more advanced BitLocker (which can also encrypt devices like removable USB drives). Phones and […]

While phones and tablets have become the go-to computing devices for many students, the laptop still has an important role to play. Any assignments requiring a lot of typing or working with complex documents such as slide decks or long PDFs, are usually better suited to the laptop’s unique capabilities. Many laptop models now even […]

Text messages, sent via carrier SMS, are fixtures of mobile communications. But they’ve lost ground to over-the-top (i.e., internet-based) services such as Apple iMessage, WhatsApp and Telegram. Those alternatives are not only more richly featured, but many have end-to-end encryption as well – something SMS and even its successor, RCS, do not support.