macOS includes a technology called Gatekeeper, that's designed to ensure that only trusted software runs on your Mac. "Gatekeeper performs online checks to verify if an app contains known malware and whether the developer's signing certificate is revoked," Apple said in a security update. "We have never combined data from these checks with information about Apple users or their devices . We do not use data from these checks to learn what individual users are launching or running on their devices".When someone installs Mac apps, plug-ins and installer packages from outside the App Store, macOS checks the Developer ID signature to verify that the software is from an identified developer and that it has not been altered. "Before opening downloaded software for the first time, macOS requests your approval to make sure you aren't misled into running software you didn't expect," Apple said.The notarization process checks if the app contains known malware using an encrypted connection that is resilient to server failures.

Source: Economic Times November 17, 2020 02:48 UTC