“Apple’s newest MacBooks include a new feature that makes it far more difficult for hackers or spies to eavesdrop on your microphone,” Zack Whittaker reports for TechCrunch. “Buried in Apple’s latest range of MacBooks — including the MacBook Pro out earlier this year and the just-announced MacBook Air — is the new T2 security chip, which helps protect the device’s encryption keys, storage, fingerprint data and secure boot features.”
“According to its newest published security guide, the chip comes with a hardware microphone disconnect feature that physically cuts the device’s microphone from the rest of the hardware whenever the lid is closed,” Whittaker reports. “‘This disconnect is implemented in hardware alone, and therefore prevents any software, even with root or kernel privileges in macOS, and even the software on the T2 chip, from engaging the microphone when the lid is closed,’ said the support guide.”
Whittaker reports, “The camera isn’t disconnected, however, because its ‘field of view is completely obstructed with the lid closed.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: And, with that, Apple’s Macintosh gets even more secure!
So always-on Siri is unavailable in clamshell mode?
No, a Librem laptop does because it has a physical switch that cute all mic’s and camera’s on your laptop.
Who makes the T2 chip? I tried researching it and couldn’t find an answer. If it is made in China, it could be vulnerable to spyware itself.
Yes but who cares when you have a physical disconnection?
TSMC probably makes it anyway. T for Taiwan, not China
How is it a new computer with an I5 chip that may have been cutting edge around 8 years ago but is now basically obsolete compared to the I7 and I9 and for what they are charging they should have included an I9 but they know apple fans buy for looks more than performance as any one who knows tech sees this as a new shell with a an old under powered processor that isn’t as good as some newer phones