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Computer Aid is always trying
to stay ahead or as close to security issues as we can. We do this by monitoring
the hacker underground using various methods as well as keeping a presence in
certain parts of the hacker community. Although this can be a fun part of our job,
We never lose sight of the fact that Computer Aid is
only there to keep our eyes open and to learn what is trending so we can provide
better security solutions to all of our business
customers as well as our home
customers. We firmly believe that if we do not know what is going on in the
hacker underground then Computer Aid cannot perform
our job properly by protecting our
customers.
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Recently, over the last several months Computer Aid has begun to see a disturbing trend.
This trend involves cookie stealing. Cookie stealing has been
around for a while, however recently we are finding that it is much
more prevalent. And the reason behind this is the availability of
well written programming software that allows anyone the ability to
create and release cookie stealing software on a networks very
easily.
Here I Computer Aid going
to tell you a little bit about what cookie stealing is. Anyone who
has had a computer for any length of time knows that you should
regularly clean your cookies. But do we know how those cookies
actually work. Many websites that you visit, especially the
websites that remember who you are put cookies into your computer
through your browser. Your browser accepts cookies as a
regular day at the office just like you walking into your job and
your boss walks up to you and to give you a list of
things that you need to accomplish during your day. Cookies work
the same way.
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You go to a website you may have to type in a username or
password and you hit enter your sending information to the website and the website
responds with a cookie. This cookie has all of the information that your computer
needs to perform all the task that it is to perform on this visit.
Cookie stealing has been around for a while. It involves a
hacker that has been around a website a while and had received cookies from
the website and then taken those cookies apart so they had a very good
understanding of how that website uses cookies for storing information from
people who have logged in and used their website. Using this method for so
long someone had a wonderful idea to write a program that would easily be able to
analyze cookies from any one website or many websites. They could surf the Internet
using this software and they could visit a lot of different websites lot of cookies
and use this cookie stealing software that they had written the two be
able to analyze and learn how to manipulate the website or websites by sitting down
and writing out their own cookie. The different websites would accept the cookies
and not knowing that it was not a legitimate cookie the website would allow
the hacker in. And then the next step comes when one person passes his software
around, or sells copies to other hackers and the next thing you know you have
hundreds of hackers using the software, improving the software, and then rewriting
the software. You begin to see that this software will evolve and grow into a piece
of software that is capable of doing a much better job, and a wider range of jobs
for the hacker. All the while this is going on the software is kept under wraps and
the hacker usually is passing the software around among trusted members of the
underground and during this time it is capable of doing the most harm because no
one knows this is floating around. Antivirus software at this point is not going to
pick up on anything.
By the time this technique is picked up by the press and
gets everyone talking about it, it has already been around a while and done
plenty of damage and no one is the wiser. Computer Aid
at this point does not see how antivirus software will be very effective in
detecting this type of threat. Mostly cookie stealing is done currently through
packet sniffing (we will discuss packet sniffing in a moment) software and
techniques. Mainly through injecting itself into a computer behind a network, this
could include using your home computer and sniffing packets through your Internet
service provider.
Packet sniffing
Computer Aid is going to attempt to explain packets sniffing
in a very simple manner. All computers connected to the Internet transferring data
from one computer to the other are done in packets. The Internet is designed
to break all data into small packets and these packets traverse the Internet and
are reassembled at their final destination. Even though these packets are not
complete there is software (packets sniffers) designed to identify words or phrases
from within these packets. Packets sniffers can be told to locate the word
"password" or the phrase "sign in" or "logon" and so on. When any of this is
detected in a packet, a copy of that packet can be redirected through the packet
sniffer to the person listening on the other end. Once the packet is captured,
redirected and read by the person on the other end then they have the information
they wanted. There are certain words used in various cookies and the same thing
applies. Once you know certain things about certain cookies that a packet sniffer
can be used to capture that information. Antivirus scanners, malware scanners most probably
will never be triggered.
Cookie stealing currently still has drawbacks however as
mentioned earlier as this method involves, Computer
Aid is sure cookie stealing will become a much more proficient method of
compromising your data. Computer Aid suggests that
whenever you use a site that remembers your password that you should be aware that
you are leaving yourself open to this type of attack. The best way to avoid a
cookie stealing agent roaming the Internet is to always log out of any website,
e-mail, bank website before you leave and to disable the "remember me" feature.
Although this is not going to guarantee that you are safe from a cookie stealer, it
does provide an increased measure of assurance and raises the level of difficulty
of a packet sniffer capturing your information. And most of the time you only have
to be just a little more careful than the next person. Kind of like if you and
someone else are being chased by a bear, you only have to run one step faster than
the other person to be safe. Your online safety is much the same way.
Computer Aid will be posting
additional information on this subject so we invite you to come back again.
Computer Aid will post additional links on this page
and on our help desk page to the additional information when it is ready. Thank
you
If you have any questions or comments please contact us and
share them. Computer Aid is always happy to hear from
our readers so please feel free. Thank you for reading this and we hope we have
made you just a bit more aware of how to maintain your safety while
online.
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