There was a study done by the Berkman Center that said our kids are more likely to be hit by a car than be abducted by an online predator. The authors also reminded us that people worry about the safety of Halloween candy even though there has never been a documented case of candy being tainted (though I just met someone who told me a friend found tainted candy one Halloween).

My opinion is that even though on any given day the chance is very small that I will get in a car accident, so I still make sure that everyone in the car is buckled up before we drive and that I have responsible driving habits. I still check my kids Halloween candy. I still teach my family how to be safe online – kids and grandparents included!

Since Halloween is right around the corner and it is National Cyber Security Awareness Month I thought I would focus on “Cookies” – not the sweet stuff. Cookies are messages, or segment of data, containing information about a user, sent by a Web server to a browser and sent back to the server each time the browser requests a Web page. Kind of like Big Brother, right? (a reference to the novel by George Orwell, not the reality tv show)

So what does this mean to you and me? Well, it means that every time I go to Amazon, it says “Hi Tracy” and shows me content that would appeal to me based on my shopping and surfing habits on their site. Your page and my page probably look very different. It also means that if you use Gmail, you get ads around your pages that pertain to what is in your mailbox.

First-party cookies are not too dangerous because they are just used on one site. But third party cookies are another story. If a site uses third party cookies that means they can get shared among sites which may not be so good.

This week I read an interesting article in USA Today by Jayne O’Donnell who interviewed Paula Greve, director of Web security research at McAfee. Jayne broke down what cookies are and what to do about them. (http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/retail/2009-10-26-cookies-explained_N.htm).

Here are some tips from the article if you want to protect your privacy:

• Check website privacy policies. Most sites state what information is gathered and how it is used. Some will let you opt in or opt out of the collection process. Check the policy especially if you plan to register on a site.

• Disable cookies. On your Web browser, you likely have an option to disable all cookies or those that apply to third-party uses. Disabling first-party cookies means websites won’t likely have your credit card or password information stored anymore. Greve has disabled third-party cookies on her computer and “sleeps better at night” because of it, she says.

• Remove cookies regularly. You can set your browser to automatically clear your entire browsing history and cookies, or do it manually. But Greve says even though cookies are removed from the computer, “Once you put your information out, it’s out there, and it’s going to get to stores in one way, shape or form.”

• Consider installing an “anonymizer.” These services hide your IP address wherever you go, but Greve warns there have been “phishing” attacks — e-mails that try to get personal information — through some of these.

• Use a proxy server. These devices, which are intermediaries between networks, allow you to browse in private.

This Halloween season beware of Halloween Screensavers. McAfee Labs has informed me that a search for them returns a significant amount of bad websites looking to infect your computer. Read this quick blog from Dave Marcus to learn about all the Halloween related scams to avoid. http://www.avertlabs.com/research/blog/index.php/2009/10/29/trick-or-treat-with-spam-and-malicious-screensavers/

Let me know if you have come across any Halloween Hoaxes online.

Happy Halloween!

Tracy
cybermom@mcafee.com
@McAfeeCybermom

Tags: Cyber Security Mom, Family Safety