How harmful are tracking cookies?

Discussion in 'other anti-virus software' started by Mortal Raptor, Jan 31, 2015.

  1. Charyb

    Charyb Registered Member

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    There is no privacy on the internet. Did you know that Wilders knows your ip address and with this information, knows your Internet Service Provider and approximately where you live?
     
  2. Krusty

    Krusty Registered Member

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    I get a new IP address every time I turn on my modem / router and my ISP information says I'm in Sydney - Not!

    Anyway, that's different to tracking cookies.
     
  3. Charyb

    Charyb Registered Member

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    Using a VPN? Most people aren't going to pay for this.

    It's difficult to stay anonymous and connected at the same time.
     
    Last edited: Feb 2, 2015
  4. skp14

    skp14 Registered Member

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    If you've never taken time to delete them specifically, its almost guaranteed you have Flash cookies aka LSO's on your PC. They are "Super Cookies" unlike normal cookies and used to track you. Run Flash Cookie Cleaner (an easy exe, no install) and see how many it deletes, you'll be suprised!

    http://flashcookiecleaner.com/

    Check the section of this article, "Block the Flash Super Cookie"
    http://time.com/3534680/best-private-browsing-tools/
     
  5. Mayahana

    Mayahana Banned

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    Part of the confusion is how antimalware firms deal with cookies.. Major security firms scan for cookies for a reason (Trend, Norton, Fortigate, etc), while firms ignore cookies. This leads to some level of confusion among folks - understandably so. But a good number of these firms based their decision on old evidence that suggested cookies were no big deal. In view of recent evidence from the release of classified documents, we can see cookies are an even bigger issue than people realized. Perhaps it's time for firms that have discounted cookies as an issue to start considering them again in view of the new facts that are coming out?

    Right now HitmanPro is the Mercedes of Cookie Detection/Removal. I can't find a good 'realtime' cookie scanner that uses a database to restrict them. So I block them at the router, and when possible add new ones I find to the database.
     
  6. Frank the Perv

    Frank the Perv Banned

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    ~ Removed Off Topic Remarks ~

    From Bitdefender:
    How can a cookie threaten a computer? A cookie can support (help) malicious actions to be taken on the respective system. Even more, being a plain text file, they are vulnerable, meaning that they can be “harvested” by other applications. Cookies can contain certain information to lead a possible attacker to the respective computer. For example: we will consider that an attacker releases a Trojan in the wild in order to gain control over several computers. This Trojan’s payload contains in dropping a Backdoor (to open a port), changing the homepage of the browser and placing a “malicious” cookie in the browser’s cookie area. When the unsuspecting user launches the browser, then it automatically connects to the new homepage (namely the attacker’s website). Once this is done, the malicious cookie is being read and the attacker becomes aware of the fact that the computer is infected. By knowing this, it becomes a piece of cake to take over the computer using some exploits or the open port.
    Let’s say that the user becomes aware of the infection and manages to remove the Trojan and the Backdoor from the computer. However, if the cookie remains on the computer, it can supply information again to the attacker if the user “manages” to access the untrusted web page again. The computer is therefore exposed once again to a possible attack. As explained in the above scenario, the cookie is used to provide information about a computer but it is not responsible with the attack itself.
    Other type of malicious attacks using cookies
    A similar case is represented by the fact that cookies are vulnerable to third party attacks. Lately, the virus analysts discovered exploits (Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, JavaScript) that allowed an attacker to harvest information from cookies using either different cookies or the so-called spyware software (for example login information for different servers the customer might use).



    As Always, Your Buddy & Pal,

    -Frank
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Feb 2, 2015
  7. Mayahana

    Mayahana Banned

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  8. Krusty

    Krusty Registered Member

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  9. Frank the Perv

    Frank the Perv Banned

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    Flashcookiecleaner looks interesting. And it is a Microsoft Certified Partner -- which does make a difference to me.

    I'm going to try this.

    I have doubts it will remove more than CCleaner or SlimCleaner... but we shall see.

    Thanks skp14.
     
  10. Charyb

    Charyb Registered Member

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  11. henryg

    henryg Registered Member

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    ~ Removed OT Remarks ~

    OK, on a serious note.... I remember that Webroot used to make the "WindowWasher".
    Triple H, do you know why Webroot stopped the development of W.W.? It seemed to do a good job at cleaning cookies while using "customized" plug-ins...
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Feb 2, 2015
  12. Triple Helix

    Triple Helix Specialist

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    Well it's not in there future plans so they stopped making it but in the Complete and Gamer versions have Optimizer which will remove Cookies from Internet Explorer but Optimizer cleans out all the junk like temp files and much more here you can read more about it http://www.webroot.com/En_US/Secure...izer/CH9c_ChangingSystemOptimizerSettings.htm

    Thanks,

    Daniel

    EDIT to Add: Identity Shield protects your Cookies and many other things!

    2015-02-02_21-41-43.png
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Feb 2, 2015
  13. henryg

    henryg Registered Member

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    Thank you, Deniel...... Will definitely check it out.
     
  14. Triple Helix

    Triple Helix Specialist

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  15. Page42

    Page42 Registered Member

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  16. Frank the Perv

    Frank the Perv Banned

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    Last edited by a moderator: Feb 3, 2015
  17. Alhaitham

    Alhaitham Registered Member

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  18. WildByDesign

    WildByDesign Registered Member

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    I have full trust in CCleaner and have used it for many years now.

    By the way, Frank, my respect for you has grown substantially. You are very realistic and I can relate to that. You tell it like it is. Cheers! :thumb:
     
  19. Brummelchen

    Brummelchen Registered Member

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    cookie handling for firefox
    https://addons.mozilla.org/de/firefox/addon/cslite-mod/ (allow/disallow temporarely/permanent)
    https://addons.mozilla.org/de/firefox/addon/cookieculler/ (delete any other but not this one)

    firefox is anytime in development so i wont use any third party (eg ccleaner) on it to damage my files.

    some websites need third party-cookies, eg facebook, gmx a.s.o.
    any other script or ad-blocker will help too.
    and a proper hosts-file to avoid such lso (super cookies) http://www.hosts-file.net/ -> ATS (ad/tracking servers)

    HTH
     
  20. Charyb

    Charyb Registered Member

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    I have third-party cookies blocked in Chrome and have never had any problems using Facebook. Why are third-party cookies needed?
     
    Last edited: Feb 3, 2015
  21. Mortal Raptor

    Mortal Raptor Banned

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    same here
     
  22. Frank the Perv

    Frank the Perv Banned

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    Yeah, that's where I am too. Although I do use SlimCleaner in addition to CCleaner. And if I had to choose only one, I'd choose SlimCleaner. So you may want to check that one out if you have not.


    Awesome. Cheers.


    -Frank
     
  23. Mayahana

    Mayahana Banned

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    I need to check out SlimCleaner, I assume from the SlimBrowser guys?

    Although I use Glary Pro (free lifetime), and Kerish Doctor, and sometimes Bleachbit, I am always open to new 'cleaners'..
     
  24. Frank the Perv

    Frank the Perv Banned

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    Hmmm... I'm not sure if it's from the SlimBrowser guys.

    It's right here:
    https://www.slimwareutilities.com/slimcleaner.php


    Of the three you listed, which one would you choose if you could only have one?
     
  25. Charyb

    Charyb Registered Member

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    Last edited: Feb 3, 2015
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