This type of incident is rare. It's far more likely that your credit card number will be lifted by the waiter who processed your card for your dinner bill than it is that it will be intercepted over the Internet or even copied out of some database on a poorly secured server. Cookies Cookies are pieces of code a Web server writes to your Web browser. Cookies can be very valuable in interactive Web sites, such as those that could be used in a distance learning program. However, cookies can also be used to identify and track your Web surfing, conveying information, unbeknownst to you, to a company that will sell it to advertisers.
Vandals can also take advantage of cookies for malicious reasons.
You can set your browser so that you are prompted before a cookie is written to your browser. It's a good practice to never accept cookies from unknown sites and to expire or delete your cookies on a frequent basis.