Hacking Browsers

Google Chrome is the least hackable web browser, the results of the 10th annual Pwn2Own event shows. The computer hacking contest is held each year at the Vancouver, Canada CanSecWest security conference and sees contestants desperately try to exploit popular software and hardware with previously unknown vulnerabilities.

Those who manage to successfully find an exploit win a cash prize, a jacket emblazoned with the year of their win, and, the device they broke into. During the three days of Pwn2Own, Microsoft Edge was successfully attacked five times – racking up $300,000 in bounties. Safari was exploited three times, Firefox was attacked twice, but only once successfully. Google Chrome had no attacks completed in time.

Clear Cookies, Cache

Hey, it is a new year, why not get a head start on some Spring cleaning. Does your web surfing seem to slow down? Are the pages loading a bit slower lately? Maybe it is time to clear the clutter. Every so often we need to remove the crap that browsers and web sites deposit onto our computers. There are programs, like 'CCleaner' to do this for your entire computer, but below is an easy and quick way to clean up just your browser.

Cookies and cache are supposed to help make web surfing and streaming experience better, but as they accumulate, they also bog things down. A quick way to freshen up your browser is by clearing the browsing data, such as cookies, cache, history, etc. If you save passwords, be careful to uncheck that box, or you will be doing a bunch of typing as you get back into those sites.

Here is how to clean up:
    Launch your Web browser (Firefox, Chrome, Edge, Internet Explorer, etc),
    Press Ctrl+Shift+Delete at the same time,
    Select the items you would like to clear, at least cache and cookies,
    Select the Delete or Clear button, depending on your browser type,
    Close and re-start your browser and try streaming again.

Things should be much quicker for a while.

Browser Tip

Have you ever closed a tab in your browser and then wish you didn't?

Hold down Ctrl and Shift and hit the letter T, the tab will reappear. (This works in at least Chrome, IE, and Firefox.)

Browser Tip

If you accidentally close a tab in either Firefox or Chrome, hold down CTRL and Shift keys then hit the letter t. The tab will come back.

Computer Cookies

Cookies are used to save a user’s information and relay this information between your computer and a website. This is used to authenticate a user, provide easier access to password controlled sites, or save various preferences of the user. Cookies are also used to track the sites you visit as well as what you buy online, and then can be read by companies to send direct ads to you, based on your visits. There are many other uses for cookies, but they are all for the web site owners and not users.

The reason the word cookie is used seems to come from a comparison to fortune cookies – the dessert common from fast-food Chinese inside which there is a slip of paper with a fortune. Early internet programmers likely noticed the similarities of a program that saves information within its code and the fortune cookie slips of paper. Cookies are placed on your computer and you are not told. I have an aversion to anyone saving anything on my computer so I regularly delete all cookies. All browsers have a delete cookies feature.