Cookies and Their Impact on Internet Security

Cookies are tiny bits of information that is stored by a web site when a user enters its site. The next time the user enters that site; the user's browser sends the information back to the site (Andrews, 1996). A cookie is typically designed to remember and tell a web site some useful information about the user.

For example, an online music store may uses cookies to keep track of what products each individual customer purchases. When the customer returns to the site, the company's browser allows it to read the cookie. The site could then make a list of similar products that the customer may be interested in, based on the cookie's information (p. 20).

Cookies are invisible to users, unless the users set preferences that alert them when cookies are being used. In most cases, cookies are harmless (Cole, 2002). Cookies...
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