Clickjacking: the act of hijacking mouse clicks

Friday 29 May 2009 - Filed under Life Outside Work

Hijacking mouse clicks? No, it’s not a marketing concept. “Clickjacking” is the scariest most diabolic security threat to everyday computing I have come across in a long while. And unlike those countless viruses out there, being a Mac user doesn’t automatically protect one from this type of attacks.

So what is clickjacking? In a nutshell, it’s when a malicious Web page stealthily superimposes an invisible button (that does something nasty, of course) on another button, link, or image that is visible and doesn’t look malicious at all. The possible consequences of clicking on such a button range from theft of personal information to involuntarily turning the computer into a 1984-style Big Brother telescreen. Yikes.

It’s easier seen than explained in writing. Check out this 5-minute cool fantastic fun video from CNET (and yes, it’s a real, innocent link, I promise) to learn more about clickjacking and also how to avoid falling victim of it. The experts suggest some countermeasures, one of which is truly ingenious.

In this day and age where Google openly declares that the Web browser is the new computer, making the wrong click on a Web page can be much more costly than making the wrong turn on the motorway.

2009-05-29  »  JK