Today, we have a mid-2000s view of Internet security.

Ever since the first product manager for Microsoft Internet Explorer decided to throw up a warning

dialogue that taught people cookies were something to be frightened of, at least as much paranoia

as fact has driven the marketplace for anti-virus software and people's online behavior.

Paranoia is coming right up on Skeptoid.

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You're listening to Skeptoid. I'm Brian Dunning from Skeptoid.com. Internet paranoia.

Today we're going to take a skeptical look at computer security. How real are the threats we

are warned about all the time? Do these supposed threats pose any actual danger? And if so, what kind?

What steps do we really need to take? This stuff is my business so I know of what I speak.

In the early days of web browsing, innovative programmers created cookies as a way

to store session variables on the visitor's computer. When Bob visits Amazon and tells the server

that his name is Bob Smith, Amazon writes Bob Smith on a name tag and sticks it on Bob's shirt.

This is a cookie. It permits Amazon to accumulate a shopping cart full of merchandise for Bob

and to know where to put each new item without asking Bob to identify himself each time he brings

something else to the register. The server can say, ah, your Bob Smith, good to see you,

and it knows which shopping cart to put Bob's new DVD into. Without cookies, it would be necessary

for Bob to log in each time he adds something to his cart. Not only is this inconvenient for Bob,

...