Cybersecurity Breachers Gaining Access to Accounts Through Cookies
With advancement of technology across the globe, the world became global village, interconnected through internet access and web applications like email and social media apps for communication. This allows consistent presence of businesses, organisations, and individuals online, while the web apps providers are putting measures in place to make sure users information are secure.
As cybersecurity experts are providing tips and services to secure businesses, organisations, governments, and individuals online, cybersecurity breachers (known as cybercriminals or hackers) are also stepping up their game by devising means to infiltrate into network, online accounts, and emails.
One of the recent ways cybercriminals gains access into accounts is through cookies, especially when web application users click on 'Remember Me' or 'Remember this device' checkbox during login in order not to use login details when next they want to access the account. The 'Remember Me' is a cookie that cybersecurity breachers can use to login to user account if they're able to intercept it.
Web cookies are small data generated by web server and sent to user web browser when visiting websites for storage and accessibility. These cookies are useful for website to remember user preferences and actions like language and login details but can also present account security breach if hackers should gain access to them from recent user login.
In October 2024, the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Atlanta division calls attention of the public and email account users like Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook, and AOL to be ware of hackers gaining access to these email accounts. The recent warning from FBI unveils cybersecurity breachers are targeting these known email service providers and their users through intercepting Remember Me cookies by devising plans that infiltrates and bypasses multifactor authentication (MFA).
Cybersecurity breach is a growing global topical issue that is terrorizing governments, businesses, organisations, and individuals. Do the following to protect yourself from cybercriminal attack that comes through cookies theft:
- Do not click on suspicious link
- Understand the risk associated with clicking on 'Remember Me' checkbox when logging into your online accounts
- Periodically clear your web browser cookies in the Settings
- If you already activated 'Remember Me' checkbox, delete saved password of the account in the browser Settings and change your password on the account