How to dodge the latest spam bullet on a Mac, iPad and iPhone
Apple users, no matter what device they are on, are being targeted with a new kind of spam, which is being delivered directly to their iCloud calendars. The surge of iCloud calendar spam is due to an exploit that allows spammers to create events to which users are invited en masse.
These invitations trigger invitation popups in iPhones, iPads, and Apple Macs, to which users have the option to accept or decline.
Regardless of the response, the spammy notifications, containing links to spam websites, and potentially malware, continue popping up in users devices.
Tech Insider has come up with a solution, at least temporary until Apple finds a way to solve the issue.
The first step is to avoid tapping Accept, nor Decline, upon receiving a new push notification, whether you are on your iPhone, iPad or MacBook, reason being that any action taken at such point will result in more spam being directed to your calendar.
Instead, users are advised to login to their iCloud accounts at iCloud.com, click on Calendar, and click on the settings icon (shaped like a cogwheel), at the bottom left of the page. At which point, click Preferences, and the Advanced tab.
Next, scroll down to Invitations, and change your delivery preferences from in-app to email.
Changing your iCloud settings as described does two things: first, it automatically delivers all calendar notifications to your email, which will do a better job at filtering out spam invites from bogus emails. The second, and slightly annoying effect, and drawback, is that no invite notification will appear on your devices, from anyone, including friends, family and co-workers.
Apple has been actively fighting spam, as well as more cyber attacks in the past few years, more than it ever had before, constantly working on improvements, and fixes to counteract not only spam, but also ransomware, which has become a plague to more than 50% of businesses worldwide, as well as regular users.
Macs and iOS devices, have been thought of as immune to hacking, by many users who never had to worry about malicious activity as much as Windows users have. It seems that the playing field has been leveled in recent years, with spammers and hackers attention turning on Macs, iPhones and iPads, which Windows 10 becomes increasingly secure, and mostly spam-free, with each new update.
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