Why and how you should empty your browser’s web cache and web cookies...
It is often said that you should keep you web browser’s cache and web cookies directory clear in order to increase your system security. But how should we do that and even more important - why? What are we protecting against by emptying our web cache and cookies?
Emptying Your Web Cache
Your browser’s web cache can contain the coding of a malware website that can load some spyware program or a worm, so cleaning it from time to time is a part of good security practices. The best time to do that is right after the spyware scanner performs it’s scheduled sweep. Otherwise you risk that the worm will just upload itself to the web cache again.
How to empty it? The procedure is pretty simple; however there are some differences between browsers.
Internet Explorer
First, make sure that you have only one browser window open. Then, go to any website, open “Tools” menu and choose “Internet Options”. Then, click the “General” tab and look for “Temporary Internet Files”. Click “Delete Files”, tick “Delete all offline content” and then “OK”. Finally, click “OK” again – this should clear all cached pages.
Netscape
Again, start by closing all browser windows except one. Open the “Edit” menu and click “Preferences”. Find “Advanced” and click “+” sign then click “Cache”. On the right you'll see buttons “Clear Memory Cache” and “Clear Disk Cache”. Start with the memory cache and click “OK” – this will delete memory cache. After that click “Clear Disk Cache” and press “OK”.
AOL
Again, make sure you have only one browser window open. Open the “My AOL” menu on the AOL toolbar and click 'Preferences'. Then choose “WWW” and look for “Temporary Internet Files”. When you find it, click “Delete Files” and “OK”.
Web cookies deleting procedure
Deleting cookies is much easier and there is even a strong debate going on whether we should even delete them in the first place.
Cookies are tiny pieces of texts that are used by various legal companies to monitor our browsing habits and choose the adverts we might be interested in and make sure we won’t receive them too often. The danger they pose is little and it has mostly to do with our privacy protection, not our property. Some people argue that they are more useful than dangerous (they are only a way of surveying people’s web surfing behavior) while other are saying that cookies pose a serious threat to our privacy by letting some third party company know what we do on the Net and where we surf.
The matter of who is right remains open and debatable, but the fact is that many people decide to protect their privacy and delete the cookies anyway. The deleting is extremely easy and you can even do it manually. Of course if you don’t want to do that (or you don’t know where to look for cookies), you can use a spyware scanner – most of them have option that allows cookies deletion.
