November 12, 2019

For Immediate release.

Dateline: Washington, DC

Headline: Will #SearchJacking and #CookieJacking be how Russia wins the 2020 election?

Executive summary:  As the plumbing of the internet allows massive opportunity for hackers to secure and misdirect users, it is clear that the solution is not to have 50 attorney generals attempt to fix it, but we must use the resources of the US Govt to come up with a clear Federal approach:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m53jnZQP32g

 By Mitchell P. Davis – CEO of The Privacy Rights Council

With Searchjacking, hackers can get people to land on bogus pages, where malicious cookies can be placed on the viewer's computer. 

Then, with CookieJacking, the hackers, as they control the computers they have invaded, can identify the computers and with a tally of the cookies from the great number of hosted sites know demographically who the viewers are and how their politics lean.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pizzagate_conspiracy_theory 

 Frankly, most computer users have no clue as to how many cookies are placed on their computers, nor how hackers can use them. The hackers may not know the personal names of each viewer, but by tracking the cookies on a computer they know the correlation of viewers and can target ads based on whose sites they visited.

Three Twitter feeds to visit for the Council, Seachjacking & Cookiejacking.

https://twitter.com/RightsCouncil  where we explain and advocate for a national privacy standard for the USA. Maybe not like GDPR in the European Union, but at least a standard so both users and providers can be guided by Uncle Sam and not the 50 Attorney Generals of the states.

https://twitter.com/SearchJacking You'll find our Twitter feed with lots of posts on searchjacking.

 https://twitter.com/CookieJacking  Another Twitter feed where CookieJacking is related to Session Hijacking.

See a good overview at this Wikepedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Session_hijacking

There is a clear and present danger to every American from this massive breach of security that has opened the door for the hackers to influence us. 

Questions?

Contact: Mitchell P. Davis 

See my linkedIn profile at www.LinkedIN/com/in/ExpertClick

Office phone: (202) 333-5000 – has voice to text message service that texts messages to me.

Home phone: (202) 333-4904 – If I'm home I'll answer it.

Cell phone – (202)853-0420 - If phone is on I'll answer – no messages taken there.

The Privacy Right Council is a project of:

Broadcast Interview Source, Inc.

2500 Wisconsin Ave, NW

Washington, DC 20007

P.S.  What's changed since Richard Viguerie ran the fundraising campaigns in the 1960s?  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Viguerie

Mail changed from snail mail to email — the primary port of entry changed from a mail slot to a computer. Cue the music to song: "Wells Fargo Wagon"  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8LHlJSBkg0

So let's compare the "old days"  vrs. "today"

Old days:  Campaigns rented mailing lists to each other. 

Today:  Emails are the key and with all the privacy and opt-in rules is the harder for candidate who drops out the give "donation list" to his successor.  ...or allow use.

Old days:  The US Post Office didn't share who sent mail to each other.  

Today:  With tracking cookies and computer settings it is possible to granularly know the site visited (envelopes opened).  

Old Days:  Postal mailing lists we sold, traded and bartered.  A conservatie pro-gun candidate could rent the mailing list from the magazine.

Today:  It is no doubt buried in the terms and conditions that the donor list of a candidate who drops out can be sold/given to the other candidate, but what of all the cookies left behind? 

Today with retargeting campaigns based on the cookies placed on computers   — that's why you keep seeing the same ads.

What is a retargeting campaign?    A site leaves a cookie behind so when the person comes back to the website, they can serve another ad in the sequence.   …. and clearly if the American Rifleman marketing team could "trade resources" by allowing their friends from Handguns Today — and in turn the guys from Handguns Today to show ads to cookies that American Rifleman left behind.  (Note:  This example is fiction, with names of the players made up —  but you never know if the Russians trade cookies access with Ukraine?)

So where is the business opportunity.   Just as there are

"Mailing List Brokers" — there could be "Cookie Brokers"  who act as intermediaries when knowledge of where the cookies are placed. 

….and of course there would be "Cookie Detectives" who specialize in the relationship and correlation of the cookies…  ...you gotta think the NSA (... and Putin's Internet Research Bureau) are scanning computers looking for cookies left behind by 4Chan.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4chan

Here's the Wikipedia page on The Internet Reseach Bureau  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Research_Agency