Red Sherrif Cookie Questions

  • Thread starter Thread starter george
  • Start date Start date
G

george

I detected and deleted red sherrif tracking cookie, but what exactly is
this? How did it get on to my machine? Can it steal any passwords or do some
serious damage? I would also appreciate any tips on better PC security - I
have Norton anti-virus, Zonealam fire wall and Adaware spy software. What
other security features should I add?
Thanks, George
 
The first following link should help explain. Cookies are supposed to be useful
little text files that help enhance your browsing experience by keeping information
such as preferred settings when you go to a website, but like anything else malicious
people found ways to exploit their use. You may also want to use a good popup stopper
like the Google Toolbar which will help prevent you from getting to malicious sites
and consider hardening your IE settings by taking advantage of the trusted Web
Content Zones so that you can set you "internet zone" security to high and also set
privacy to medium high or high adding your trusted sites to the exempt cookie
ist. --- Steve

http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/cookies.htm
http://toolbar.google.com/
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/using/howto/security/ie6.asp
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/using/howto/security/settings.asp
 
george said:
I detected and deleted red sherrif tracking cookie, but what exactly is
this? How did it get on to my machine? Can it steal any passwords or do some
serious damage? I would also appreciate any tips on better PC security - I
have Norton anti-virus, Zonealam fire wall and Adaware spy software. What
other security features should I add?
Thanks, George
Click to expand...

RedSheriff is a Java-based spyware. Unlike traditional ones that load
some kind of app on your system, RedSheriff (a.k.a. IMRWorldWide) only
needs Java to be enabled. It basically can follow you around as long
as your browser is open, so it avoids this limitation of cookie-based
tracking. The cookies themselves allow tracking to be extended across
sessions unless the cookies are deleted.
There are a few different ways to defend against this. The easiest is
to usea HOSTS file or (visit alt.privacy.spyware-a link to a new
version was posted within the last few days), or, better yet, DNSKong
(www.pyrenean.com; I have it and instructions and current config files
on my site). Alternatively, you can disable Java in your browser - you
probably won't miss anything - or add in the RedSheriff home IP
address to ZA, if you are using ZA Pro.
P.S. I also recommend using SpyBot as well as Ad-Aware.

Sponge
Sponge's Security Site
www.geocities.com/yosponge
My new email is yosponge two att yahoo dott com
 
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