Washington Apple Pi

A Community of Apple iPad, iPhone and Mac Users

January 2020 General Meeting

Security through macOS Catalina 10.15

January 25, 2020, 9:30 a.m. to noon, Cedar Lane Unitarian Universalist Church

Note: this meeting will be held in Maryland, at Cedar Lane Unitarian Universalist Church, 9601 Cedar Lane, Bethesda, MD 20814. Please park in the upper parking lot for this meeting.

In case of inclement weather or other emergencies, the Pi follows the same schedule for closures as the Montgomery County school system.

The Macintosh was introduced way back in 1984. Since that time, it has developed an enviable reputation as a robust, versatile, and secure operating system. Yet the very meaning of "security" has changed drastically over the past 36 years, and these changes are at the heart of Apple's latest version of the operating system, macOS Catalina 10.5.

In 1984, "security" meant keeping the user from accidentally doing something unfortunate, such as formatting a disk accidentally or saving a new document on top of an old one. In 2020, "security" means keeping your information safe from snoopy relatives, thieves who want to remotely steal your money, or foreign governments trying to influence what you say and see, or how you vote. The Macintosh was the first consumer-level computer to allow almost anyone to communicate with the Internet, but communication is a two-way street.

Washington Apple Pi's January presentation will talk about how to securely set up macOS Catalina, why you should be using macOS Catalina, and things you can do to protect your computer and yourself beyond what Apple provides. Our speaker will be Lawrence Charters, coming in remotely from the Upper Left USA via the magic of the Internet. Lawrence's wide-ranging expertise covers many things, including the fact that elk like spinach.

Visualization of the local elk herd. Click on image for a full-size view.

If the elk or other local denizens interfere with the remote broadcast, the Washington Apple Pi leadership team will reprise their award-winning rendition of Hello, Dolly, accompanied by one of the largest all-kazoo bands in the world. Or possibly something more germane.

Question and Answer Session

Questions and Answers will be posed and answered prior to the main presentation. With any luck at all, they will involve Macs, iPhones, iPads, Apple TV, Apple Watch, HomePod, and other topics we might know something about.

If there is adequate bandwidth, and it isn't entirely used up by the attendees and their iPhones, iPads, iPods, etc., we will stream the meeting over the Pi's YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeX9TuhjBL7n1HGlHOaNCmQ