The Sisyphus Comments

Is Your Clipboard Information Safe?

Everyone who uses a computer quickly learns how to cut and paste information from one location on the computer another using Windows Clipboard. Of course, the Clipboard is a temporary storage area within Windows that holds the copied information. Is this process dangerous to use when on the internet? Well, maybe.

Most people are unaware of a problem with Internet Explorer. A JavaScript program can be used to harvest your information right off the Windows Clipboard when you?re visiting a website without your knowledge. You can check this out yourself. Just highlight this sentence and Ctrl + C (or click Edit, Copy) to copy it and then go to http://www.friendlycanadian.com/applications/clipboard.htm. If you’re using Internet Explorer, you might see whatever you copied in the box at the top of the page unless you have changed your security settings.

To prevent the javascript from working in Internet Explorer, click Tools>>Internet Options. Select the Security tab. Under Web content zones, select Internet. Under Security level, click the Custom Level button.

Under Scripting, you’ll see a setting labeled “Allow paste operations via script.” For that setting, select Disable. Then click OK. Finally, click OK on the next window. Another option would be to just turn JavaScript but many websites will not work correctly.

Another solution is to stop using Internet Explorer except to retrieve Windows Updates. Use Firefox, the free browser from Mozilla.org. Even when it is set up to use JavaScripts, something in Firefox kept the Clipboard information from being viewed. Listen to the CopCAST podcast next Sunday for more information on Firefox.

Remember, that when you copy and paste sensitive information like your credit card number, it remains on the Clipboard until you turn off the computer, or copy something else.