Apple’s new T2 security chip will prevent eavesdroppers from hacking your Mac’s microphone

“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!