We all know the ‘Allow cookies?’ message. This option now appears in practically all websites. In fact, nowadays more people associate the term ‘cookies’ with its Internet use rather than with its edible origin.

Cookies are small data packets which Web pages load on to browsers for a whole range of reasons. Every time you return to the same URL, the computer sends back this little package of information to the server, which detects that you have returned to the page.

When you access your email account or Facebook profile, it is cookies that allow your user name and password to be saved, so the next time you won’t have to enter them again.

But apart from storing strings of digits and letters, webmasters can use these tools for monitoring the activity of Internet users.

These virtual spies collect information about your Internet habits: the pages you visit frequently and the topics that interest you. The problem is that they usually share this information with data analysis firms or those that design targeted marketing campaigns.

If, say, an ad for a food product appears on your screen after you visit a restaurant page, don’t be too surprised. Thanks to cookies, advertising can be tailored to consumers’ preferences.

Even though cookies are safe and won’t usually infect your computer with malware, it is not always clear in whose hands the collected data ends up or where it is stored.

A team of researchers from Queen Mary University, London, has managed to shed some light on this in one of its studies. They have basically been spying on the spies. They analyzed where the data of Internet users from around the world ended up in order to draw up a data circulation map.

The experts have focused on who is running cookies on user’s browsers. External companies (such as those marketing and data analysis firms mentioned above) send these data packets from a domain different to the site so they can be detected when they do this. With this methodology they were able to analyze the 500 most popular pages in 28 countries.

The results have shown that this practice extends across the world. You can also see in the image the areas of the planet where Internet user privacy is most compromised.

While in Europe, South America and Oceania the amount of local companies accessing user data is quite similar, the number is greater in Turkey and Israel. The origin of the snoopers is also interesting: most come from Russia or Germany. Those based in the USA often end up on browsers in the Middle East.

Scientists believe that this distribution reflects Internet privacy legislation in different countries. In most European countries, where there are laws regulating third-party access to user data, there aren’t so many ‘spies’ as in China or Turkey, where such rules are scarce. But spies are everywhere, so experts continue to call for tougher measures to combat the trafficking of personal information.

The post How cookies work? appeared first on MediaCenter Panda Security.

A developer created a game that became an Internet sensation in just a few hours. Overwhelmed by the success of his work, he decided to sell it.

This is similar to what happened with Flappy Bird. Vietnamese game developer Dong Nguyen, decided to sell the famous app as soon as it became successful.

Yet in this case the game is not about birds and tubes, rather viruses and IT security. The game is called ‘Hacker Experience‘ and its creator, a computer science student at the University of Winnipeg, has been saturated by the response to this simulator.

“I’m tired. So I’m selling my game that just went viral “. With these words, Renato Massaro, who is just 21 years old, has terminated his relation with ‘Hacker Experience’, the game he was working on for two-and-a-half years.

The game is a hacking simulator, where players can play the role of a cyber-criminal trying to become rich and powerful working for an evil corporation. In this game, you can hack virtual servers, develop new software, mine bitcoins, work on missions, hack banks, etc.

But it’s only a game; everything that happens is just a simulation, so players are not really handling viruses that could damage their computers or destroying the hardware on other people’s systems. It’s all a work of fiction, a simulator that you can play online and which became an incredible success within just a few hours.

“It went viral in a matter of minutes,” says Massaro, who goes on to explain how he launched ‘Hacker Experience‘ at 4pm on September 13 and, “…by the end of the day, it had 2000 registered users and 1000 online.”

This instant success was largely down to two news aggregators: Hacker News and Reddit who made the name of this game spread like wildfire and the number of users rocket in no time at all.

What this Brazilian student had been working on for so long, suddenly became a sensation. “Now, about 30 hours later, there are 6000 registered users and 1500+ online,” said Massaro, as he realized that the situation was simply too much for him.

In just a few hours the situation had become unbearable for the young student having received thousands of emails and messages. Overwhelmed by the situation, the creator of the simulator decided to put ‘Hacker Experience’ up for sale.

What was the asking price? There wasn’t one. Massaro waited for offers via email. He was selling the game, the code and the NeoArt Labs brand, under which he had launched the game, but as he had never before sold software, he had no idea what price to put on his game.

He did however tell potential buyers that this was the result of more than two and a half years work and that ‘Hacker Experience’ was already a lucrative source of income.

According to his calculations, revenue from Google AdSense and Premium account users (‘Hacker Experience’ is based around the ‘freemium’ model, where players pay for certain features that give them an advantage or make the game quicker) would offer a minimum return of $1000 (about 800 euros) a month. However, Massaro also claims that with a few adjustments and offering more advantages to Premium users, ‘Hacker Experience’ could soon be offering returns of up to $5000 (almost 4000 euros) per month.

Nevertheless, any potential buyer should also be aware the game’s users have already found flaws and have been sending them via email to the creator as well as publishing them on the Hacker Experience wikipedia page and forum.

The game is still operating, though probably it is now under new ownership. In exchange, the creator will have received a decent sum (according to his own calculations, Massaro suggests that a price of some 60,000 dollars for the game would be easily recovered within the space of one year) and above all he can now enjoy the peaceful life that was so rudely interrupted by ‘Hacker Experience‘, the virus game that went viral.

The post Hacker Experience. The game about IT security caused a sensation on the Internet appeared first on MediaCenter Panda Security.

Craigslist is a website hosting classified ads for jobs, houses, cars… To give you an idea, there are around 10 million new Craigslist ads every month.

As sometimes happens with these kinds of pages, Craigslist has become a hunting ground for fraudsters trying to scam the people who read these ads.

In fact, there’s even an “Avoid scams & fraud” section on the website offering advice on how to improve security in transactions. 

How to recognize scams on Craigslist

• If the reply sent by the person you have contacted comes from another country, be wary.
• They often ask for payment via platforms such as Western Union or Money Gram or a check or money order as surety on the transaction.
• The other party can’t meet you in person to make the transaction.
• There is a ‘third-party’ who will make the transaction.

Example of fraud on Craigslist

• Companies offering work but who ask for an advance payment from the employee.
• Rental of apartments that don’t exist.
• Sale of cars that ask for payment in advance without you having seen the vehicle.

Tips for avoiding fraud on Craigslist

• Read the ad carefully.
• Don’t buy or rent anything without having physically seen it.
• Take payment in cash. PayPal is also a secure way of receiving payment. Don’t accept checks or money orders.
• Don’t give any type of personal or financial information.
• Be wary of incredible bargains. If you find a low-priced apartment in an up-market area, it’s probably a scam.
• Have a good look at photos. Many scams include photos of things that look too good for the asking price.

We know that criminals are becoming increasingly devious in disguising their scams, so, with your Internet security in mind, please take great care when buying online.

Have you ever fallen victim to a similar scam?

The post The Craigslist scams appeared first on MediaCenter Panda Security.