Expert: Brian Benosky - 8/7/2010

Question
can i have cookies on my harddrive - if a hacker somehow got into my computer despite the fact that I have an active Mcaffe security program?  They are porn sites that were visited.  the history on the browser was deleted but not the cookies

Answer
Hi Lynn

There are two ways to receive those cookies:
1. The sites were opened by a user on your computer, perhaps unintentionally, as in a pop-up.
2. The sites were opened by the computer itself due to some form of malware installed.

Since you mentioned that the browser history was deleted, I would lean towards the first scenario.  It's unlikely a virus would clear your viewing history.  If you would like for me to double-check to see if there is malware installed, please follow the directions below for posting a HijackThis log.

Please download HijackThis to your desktop from here:
http://www.trendsecure.com/portal/en-US/_download/HJTInstall.exe
Make sure you close EVERY open window and ALL browser windows. The only thing that should be open is the HijackThis program.
Double-click on the file you just downloaded.
Click on the "Install" button.
Upon install, HijackThis should open for you.
Should it not open, go to C:\Program Files\Trend Micro\HijackThis and double click on HijackThis.exe
Choose 'Do a system scan and save a log file'.
Copy the text file which opens in Notepad and paste it in your follow-up to me.
* Do not fix any entries in HijackThis, as they may be harmless.

Brian