Secure Your Mac Laptop by Upgrading the Operating System

Security continues to be at the top of the minds of the Technology & Innovation Department—and hopefully yours as well. Whether it's your personal data, your online finances, or access to your personal or work computing devices, we must all follow responsible security practices to ensure the bad guys don't get what they're looking for. The number one thing you can do to keep the scoundrels from plundering your digital life is to make sure that you're running the latest operating systems.

In this article, we will focus on your MacBook Air laptop. When our new laptops were assigned about three years ago, macOS 11 was the operating system installed at the time. Since then we've been introduced to three new versions of macOS—with macOS 14 being the latest. Many of you have been diligent about keeping your computer updated, but many users have not. Around Winter Break we were able to nudge those who were still on macOS 11 to upgrade their computers to 14. Now it's time to get the remaining users who are currently running macOS 12 to the latest version.

Those of you still on macOS 12 will begin getting emails and notifications on your computer encouraging you to upgrade your operating system. The deadline for users to upgrade is April 5, 2024. Operating systems prior to macOS 14 do not have updated security features and leave you and the district open to cybersecurity risks. If your computer is not upgraded to macOS 14 by the end of the day on Friday, April 5, 2024, you will lose access to it. 

One of the hurdles some users may face when upgrading their operating system is that their hard drive may report it is too full to run an upgrade. Upgrading to macOS 14 takes 25GB of free space. If the storage on your MacBook Air is full, you can easily move data to your Google Drive—and we can help you if needed. Please reach out to your building LTA or the Technology Department (call x. 1500) if you need assistance with freeing up space on your MacBook Air laptop.

Once staff members running macOS 12 are upgraded to macOS 14, we'll focus on assisting staff members running macOS 13 to upgrade to macOS 14. We hope that by the end of the school year we'll have everyone on the latest—and most secure—version of macOS.

Thanks in advance for helping us help you keep our district secure.