QUESTION: I use zone alarm so that no one outside my PC can reach in.(of course Tekkies in TEL AVIV designed this software so they can get all your PC contents if they want. As writing political dissent articles made me a target once, I USE ZONE ALARM ANYWAY. I want to talk to pals without danger of intrusion. Or write to web blogs. Or create web pages. And I want to put ads up at Craigs list to get readers. I obviously have to accept cookies to put ads up at CRAIGS list.. I wondered, if I use 'edit preferences' on my browser, to allow cookies, aren't everybody and his brother writing to my hard drive????????
ANSWER: Cookies CAN be used maliciously,
but I would not be concerned about the remote possibility that the one
in a million persons who might be up to hijinks would target YOU. The transfer
of funds to numbered Swiss accounts, from your Bank account to theirs, is more likely
to be the goal of a serious hacker looking for a NAME AND FAME FAMILY
Everybody and their brother have no desire
to invade anyone's hard drive. Cookies are used by websites so that the
site can recognize returning visitors. Saves users from having to register
their name and statistics EVERY TIME they try to access the site. The cookie
tells the site servers that the incoming data request is from a "known"
PC, one that has already registered with the site. I allow all cookies
and in 20 years online have NEVER had any repercussions. My advice is to
allow all cookies and don't worry about it. Remember that every outfit
has an ax to grind, a service to SELL, an agenda.
The reason for all the paranoia HYPE is to SELL SECURITY PRODUCTS. I would not doubt that the people that sell McCaffey and Norton's AntiVirus, etc. are the people that invent and propagate the virus/worm. Run Nortons AntiVirus and relax. Cookies are good for you. Blog away! And get a free ZONE ALARM type program, and Free is the key word! You download it at the manufacturer's site. Takes a minute, and even a non tekkie like me figured out how to start it up. In addition to Zone Alarm also try Browser Hijack Blaster and Spybot. With these 3 free programs, you are as well protected as "free" can be.
TO PUT 40 ads on CRAIGS
LIST DAILY, it is necesary to ERASE cookies every few minutes.
Then reboot the browser, empty. HERE's how. ON MOST browsers, mozilla firefox,
IE, etc, HIT TOOLS
INTERNET OPTIONS, where you see cookies, view
then ERASE and hit OK. That way CRAIGS cannot
see how many ads you are putting up. ALSO you must use fifty different
EMAIL ADDIES. NOTE: At time that CRAIGS was watching the ad count, I had FIFTY.
I give tips on how to do this at CRAIGS
LIST article.
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