On-line Banking And Cookies

[Dark Atheist]

(not the ones you eat so no stupid postings please )

If you use on-line banking is it wise to leave the cookies they tend to set on your pc, i mean excluding them from drive cleaners and such (CCleaner and the like) or is it a better idea to wipe them from the pc.

A few friends and family members have asked me about this and normaly i would say its fine to leave them, but the more paranoid of the bunch has brought up the whole spywre and malware thing and is concerned that if their pc go hacked/infected, that their bank details would be at risk.

I have tried to inform them that no bank information (account no) is stored in the cookie, but seeing as they wont believe me, i was kind of hoping those more knowledgeable in the area or security could post here to eliveate their fears.

Thanks

 

[LordOfLA]

if their pc's get infected the source of the leak will be the keylogger intercepting the details they type in to the login forms. Bank cookies are usually encrypted to such a keylength that bruteforcing them would take thousands of years.

If your bank has a card reader thing for login, you're safe.

 

[Dark Atheist]

They use firefox and use the banks online login pages - im paranoid to **** so i delete all bank cookies.

But i will send them an email with your post in it - thanks lord

 

[X-Istence]

Bank cookies at most contain an identifier letting the bank know your computer has already been identified to them before. Bank of America for example stores the fact that you have already visited them with that browser and computer.

It contains no identifying information and can not be used to steal your credentials. If they are afraid of malware and spyware they need to worry more about software that key logs than some random cookies.

 

[Dark Atheist]

Thanks X i will let them know