Adware Cookies

I was accused of surfing the internet at work during work hours, but the truth is I havn't. My boss claimed to have facts and proof that I did - a cookies log. It showed that there were 4 cookies created or modified during work hours (ad.yieldmanager, trafficmp, vzwmail.vzwshop, ibm). I objected by saying that I have not been using the internet during work hours, and if adware were already on the computer, they will work in the background and possibly create these cookies. My boss called up the head of the tech department and he replied, "that's not possible, these will only be created if the user launched Internet Explorer or surfed online." My boss did not believe anything I said after that, but I do have one final chance at rebuttal by gathering up info and send an email to my boss.

So my question is: Is it possible for adware cookies to be created or modified without an Internet Explorer being launched, if adware, spyware, or adware cookies already exist on the computer?

Hello,
Yes it is possible for cookies to be created without YOU opening Internet Explorer. If adware is already on the machine in question, certain adware will bombard you with popup windows and these popup windows are just Internet Explorer windows without the menu, tool or status bars, therefore the cookies can be created when the adware opens the popup at the relative site. I of course cannot comment on what adware is on that machine because I can't be 100% sure, but you have a Yieldmanager cookie. By further looking into Yieldmanager, I found somebody with this problem related to Yieldmanager:

"I'm recieving pop-ups from ad.yieldmanager.com even when I'm away from my machine and there is no IE open"

So if this PC at work has adware installed thats making popups to websites like Yieldmanager appear, its more than likely that the adware is the cause of the cookies creation, without you physically launching Internet Explorer.

__________________
Owen,
My Website - I Security.org.uk

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