Happy New Year 2024!

Happy New Year!

I may have messed up the dates for the holiday in my last news summary. Nevertheless, here we are ready to tackle to the new year, or at least continue as before. It looks like several MacAdmins used the time between the holidays to catch up on some writing.

Apple published the second beta for macOS 14.3 and iOS 17.3 and quickly pulled the iOS beta again, because there were reports of it bricking devices (you can save the device by reviving with iOS 17.3b1 with Apple Configurator)

As I have mentioned before, TinyLetter, the service I have been using to send the news summary for nearly 300 issues, will shut down at the end of February. After some research and a testing, I have chosen to use Curated going forward. I have been cross-posting the last few issues there already, if you want to see how it looks. If you want, you can already subscribe there.

There are a few more things to sort out, but if all works out, I will move the subscriber list and MacAdmins.news before the end of this month. You shouldn't have to do anything about this. But the appearance of both the email and the website will change, as will the sender of the email and the RSS feed. So, I believe a heads-up is warranted. I will give another heads-up for the exact date of the switch everything is ready.

📰 News and Opinion

I Just Failed the 2024 Apple Device Support Exam

I just sat the brand new 2024 Apple Device Support exam that leads to ACSP certification… and failed!

Timely Apple updates must be in your supplier SLAs

For business, it is also important to ensure your suppliers are equally committed to the platforms you use. That means ensuring third-party suppliers don’t just update their software with Apple OS support months or weeks after release,

Apply to join the Mac Admins Foundation BoardApply to join the Mac Admins Foundation Board

The MAF is in need of working volunteers to help join the leadership

Conference planners, we have to talk

Conference planners and companies, why are you so bad at choosing locations and dates?

⚙️ Apple Updates

Apple Pulls iOS 17.3 Beta 2 Due to Boot Loop Issue

Apple has removed the iOS 17.3 and iPadOS 17.3 betas after a number of people reported that the software is bricking devices.

🔐 Security and Privacy

The Mac Malware of 2023

After reading this blog post you will have a thorough and comprehensive understanding of latest threats targeting macOS. This is especially important as Macs continue to flourish, especially in the enterprise

Threat Hunting Pids Within Apple's Endpoint Security API

The Apple Endpoint Security (ES) API provides a number of different process ID’s that can be used in our day to day threat hunting.

4-year campaign backdoored iPhones using possibly the most advanced exploit ever

"Triangulation" infected dozens of iPhones belonging to employees of Moscow-based Kaspersky.

🔨 Support and Tutorials

How to Configure Local Administrator Password Solution (LAPS) in Jamf Pro

LAPS is a security feature that helps organizations maintain control over end-user privacy and sensitive data on computers enrolled with Jamf Pro. This feature leverages Apple's SetAutoAdminPassword command, which allows management of the administrator account created during the PreStage enrollment process using MDM.

Configure Down Alerts for UniFi networks

instructions on how to configure down alerts to be sent by push notification and/or email when your UniFi network goes offline, using NameCheap for Dynamic DNS and UptimeRobot for monitoring.

HCS Technology Group - Create a Jamf Smart Group for the Current Version of macOS

Smart Computer Groups are a good way of filtering your devices with specific attributes. Combine this with Patch managment and you will be able to view devices that are in compliance with your company policy.