Cookie theft: how fraudsters get the digital key to your accounts
Source: The Guardian ·
‘Session cookies’ are a primary target for hackers letting them hijack and use your accountsYou’ve had a busy morning of life admin, logging into various accounts to check balances and make payments. At the end of a productive few hours you close your laptop and move on to your next job.What you don’t know is that fraudsters have hijacked your session with the bank and are now able to access…
From the source
You’ve had a busy morning of life admin, logging into various accounts to check balances and make payments. At the end of a productive few hours you close your laptop and move on to your next job. What you don’t know is that fraudsters have hijacked your session with the bank and are now able to access your account. You are the victim of cookie theft, which belongs to a type of fraud known as “session hijacking”. “Cookies have become the primary target for hackers,” says Marijus Briedis, chief technology officer at cyber security company NordVPN. In the year to June it identified 52bn cookies in stolen data circulating online. When you log into a website, such as your bank’s, you are given a unique cookie that sits on your device and stores your data temporarily. This means you can move from page to page without repeatedly being asked for your login details. It’s called a “session cookie” – or key – and as soon as you log out, it stops being of use. But while the session is open –…
BestAIBroker analysis
- Finance-aware sentiment: slightly negative (-0.30 on a -1 to +1 scale).
- Event classification: OTHER.
- Market importance score: 33/100, weighting entity relevance, source credibility, multi-outlet coverage and recency.
- Symbols referenced: MFA.