Why does NetTeller use “cookies?
NetTeller, developed by Jack Henry and Associates, uses “cookies” to keep track of a user’s session. When a user logs into NetTeller, the website sends three “cookies” to his computer. The first two act as a laundry claim-check; they are merely sequentially assigned numbers. The third is a large random string that allows us to verify that someone isn’t trying to impersonate a legitimate user by guessing the value of the first two “cookies.” The “cookies” are only valid for one session; each time users logs in, they receive a new set of cookies. We use the “cookies” to ensure that the user has entered a valid NetTeller ID and PIN, and to ensure that the user’s session hasn’t timed-out. The use of “cookies” also allows us to speed up NetTeller by temporarily storing some user information in our web server’s memory. Accessing the user’s information in memory is much faster than having to retrieve it from the host or from a database every time it is needed. When the user logs off or the se
