THAT SYNCING FEELING

All the synchronisation across devices and the integration of apps from laptop to iPhone, etc, is a great thing. Or is it, in all circumstances?

I recently unsynced my MacBook Pro Messages app from the cloud, and thus from my phone, as it had occurred to me that there was a security risk. Albeit a risk only if my MacBook were stolen and opened, but you never know.

I have two-factor authentication in place for many things – including banking – and I noticed that when my bank (for example) sent me an authorisation code, this was automatically displayed on my MacBook screen to fill in, as well as being received on my phone as a text. Hmm, I thought, if someone were to hack my account, the two-factor authentication code – instead of keeping them out – has actually been presented to them on a plate.

There is no way to stop this and keep messages synced, so… it’s gone. Maybe someone seeing the code isn’t a very likely scenario, but it IS possible. You makes your choice!

BY PETER BENSON

ROB SAYS…

We agree. While being able to access your messages across all your devices can be a good thing in principle, it can cause exactly the issues you suggest – which isn’t ideal from a security standpoint.

The solution is to do as you say and head to Messages > iMessage and untick ‘Enable Messages in iCloud’ on Mac since Apple doesn’t yet enable you to decide which of your received messages are synced in iCloud and which ones aren’t. Nor can you choose to stop messages from specific senders (your bank, for example) appearing in this manner.

Hopefully this will be something that Apple will address in a future OS update.