Cookies and Their Impact on Internet Security
Cookies are tiny bits of information that is stored by a web site when a user enters its site. The next time the user enters that site; the user's browser sends the information back to the site (Andrews, 1996). A cookie is typically designed to remember and tell a web site some useful information about the user.
For example, an online music store may uses cookies to keep track of what products each individual customer purchases. When the customer returns to the site, the company's browser allows it to read the cookie. The site could then make a list of similar products that the customer may be interested in, based on the cookie's information (p. 20).
Cookies are invisible to users, unless the users set preferences that alert them when cookies are being used. In most cases, cookies are harmless (Cole, 2002). Cookies cannot be used to gather personal information about users, unless the users provide the information.
However, some companies use cookies develop a profile of Internet users' interests based on the sites visited and the things they do at the sites (Descy, 1999). As a result, advertisers can tailor online advertising based on the interests and buying habits of Internet users, or use the information in a variety of other ways. This can present a significant threat to Internet security, if Internet users do not exercise caution.
Introduction
Many Web surfers have a fear of cookies that is based on ideas from the media that cookies are a dangerous risk to Internet security (Lowe, 2002). However, the majority of cookies are actually harmless.
Cookies are small text files that many websites place on a user's machine to identify it (Cole, 2002). Different websites use cookies for different reasons. Many use cookies to store registration details, so that users do not have to enter all their details every time they visit a site.
Others use them as an additional security check, or to verify a user's identity. In addition, some use websites use cookies to record which areas of a website a user has visited. Advertisers can also use cookies to monitor which advertisements have been seen by users and how successful their campaigns are.
Cookies are actually beneficial to Internet users and websites when properly used to personalize the Web experience. However, some websites' use of cookies has a negative impact on Internet security, such as DoubleClick Network's use of cookies to record the Internet habits of users (Davidson, et al., Sterne, Philips). This type of use poses a threat to the privacy of the users, as the company uses information obtained through cookies for marketing purposes.
The Basics of Cookies and Their Impact on Security
According to Joshua Woodruff, E-Business architect at Avaya Communications, Inc. "Internet cookies, or small files that get downloaded to client browsers when surfing sites, can potentially expose a significant security risk."
The cookie file can contain information such as user IDs and passwords, credit card numbers, social security numbers, or any other piece of information the organization handing out the cookie feels it needs to store on a client system. This file exposes information that is then vulnerable to hackers who may be able to get onto a client system via the Internet and copy these files.
Why are cookies used then? This kind of information helps organizations track new and repeat visitors, provide automatic sign in, and pre-populate web pages with information entered the last time the client visited the site, among many other things. According to Woodruff, it "is completely up to the whims of the organization handing out the cookie as to what may be contained in the file and what it's used for."
Therefore, it is not necessarily the cookie itself that poses a security risk, but rather the level of expertise and professionalism used on the other end - the web development teams within these organizations that build the code for these cookie files and functions (Sterne, 1997).
When asked how to tell what level of skill and scrutiny a particular web developer has when visiting a particular web site, Wooduff's answer was, "You can't! Any time you visit any web site, you are exposing yourself to the code that's been written by a particular team of developers whom you can only hope use strict security guidelines in their development practices. Of course most professional, major web sites, such as Dell.com and Amazon.com, would not code cookies in such a way to expose any potential risk - right? But how do you know for sure?"
Protection...
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