The implications of stolen cookies for global brands

Most consumers browse the web with little thought to the invisible risks lurking behind each click. But as cyber threats grow more sophisticated and widespread, that carefree approach to online activity is beginning to shift, and for good reason. The theft of browser cookies, once a niche concern, has become a serious security issue with far-reaching implications for global brands. And in many ways, the reckoning has already begun. 

All but the most tech adverse generations have been wary, but comfortable with the online world and its potential risk. We now have in the marketplace and workforce generations of consumers who never knew an online world.  

Jump to:

• Tech through the ages: How generations embrace the digital world
• Cybersecurity threats: Are we secure online?
• Cookies: The silent security threat
• What brands can do now: Practical responses

Tech through the ages: How generations embrace the digital world

Generation Z, the first of these “digital natives” generations, grew up searching online for answers, shopping through the internet, and interacting with others and the world around them through technology. Older generations, such as Generation Y (Millennials) and Generation X, experienced some part of the technological revolution, and though they will remember the shift from analog to digital, the online world became a crucial part of their work and personal lives.  

Each of these three generational powerhouses have a different attitude towards technology and its adoption, but the common thread across generations is that they have integrated their lives with it. For example, while one source calls Generation X “pragmatic adopters,” Generation Y “early adopters,” and Generation Z “digital natives,” all generations use technology in everyday life.  

Cybersecurity threats: Are we secure online?

Similarly, there are generational differences in attitude about online security, with some generations more or less likely to adopt protective practices. At the same time, all generations that use technology have some concerns about online security. As one source states, “…Gen Z is the most concerned with their cybersecurity, but we’re still seeing security become increasingly important for all demographics as cyber attacks like phishing continue being headline news.” 

It is no wonder that people are concerned about online privacy. Forbes reported in May of 2025 that nineteen billion passwords are on the illegal market, ready for any criminal to buy and use. Considering that many people use the same or similar password across multiple sites, a bad actor’s investment in a single password has the potential to give them access to multiple sites, data, funds, and identities. Sophisticated password cracking techniques make online access even riskier. 

Cookies: The silent security threat

Online risk is no longer just a matter of whether a web visitor uses a strong password or Multi Factor Authentication (MFA) to get into an online account. Now, even browser cookies – mostly thought of as benign, though perhaps irritating, online entities – represent threat exposure to consumers and companies alike.  

Recently, a report revealed that almost 94 billion stolen browser cookies were available on the dark web for purchase.  

Further study into the nature of that cookie data showed that, in addition to the benign data we typically associate with cookies, black market cookies included 18 billion assigned IDs and 1.2 billion session IDs – information that bad actors can use to identify individuals and take over online accounts. Additionally, these stolen cookies included names, email and physical addresses, and passwords.  

Global brands should take notice of this development for three practical reasons: erosion of consumer trust, regulatory attention, and legal concerns.  

Erosion of consumer trust

The most important outcome of stolen cookies is the potential it has to degrade the amount of trust consumers have in visiting websites, accepting cookies, and providing personal information online. Even users representing generations that typically take online security for granted, more evidence to the contrary is likely to shift perception – and therefore, actions.  

Though the possibility of cookie theft and subsequent sale on the black market may or may not be enough to discourage some consumers from visiting websites, stolen cookies is just one risk piled up on an ever-increasing mountain of digital security issues, such as ransomware attacks, phishing, social engineering attacks, keystroke malware, and others.  The “one more thing” of cookie security concerns may be the tipping point that results in customers avoiding websites, declining cookies, and sharing less information about themselves with online organizations.  

The result for companies; 

• lower revenue, 
• less and lower quality data about their customers, and 
• limited ability to use cookies to drive website experiences/analytics/marketing.  

Regulator attention 

Data protection is a top-of-mind regulator focus.  

Even non-privacy-specific regulators, like the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in the United States, frequently underscore the critical need of security and their intention of prioritizing that issue as they investigate and enforce.  

Regardless, a regulator that investigates a company for data protection issues will investigate and bring in as many identified security issues as it can, which now may include data losses through stolen cookies. More issues mean more fines.  

Since regulators pay attention to what their peers are doing, the more enforcement from one regulator, the more parallel enforcement from other regulators.  

Legal concerns

As regulators pay attention to contemporary trends in privacy and security risks, so does the legal world. Where there is a private right of action related to privacy and security, lawsuits (including class action lawsuits) can add legal costs and pressure to companies for any breach in security.  

In some jurisdictions, private lawsuits can represent the largest direct cost of data breaches. The potential to add stolen cookies to the list of harms addressed in the court system may become another weapon in a plaintiff’s attorney’s arsenal, and so another landmine in a company’s litigation risk landscape.  

What brands can do now: Practical responses

Though there will be future developments related to cookies and cookie theft, a thoughtful company can still take a few moderate actions now to mitigate future concerns.  

1. Inform web teams: An educated web development team may be the best first defense against cookie risks. Make sure that web developers understand how cookies can, and have been, stolen and the implications for customers and the company.  
2. Limit cookie information: The less personal information in cookies, and the more benign any cookie information is, the less risk to web visitors. A quick review of cookie contents and elimination of any information that criminals can use against consumers will help reduce the impact if the information does get into the wrong hands.  
3. Provide information and options: Clear communication with web visitors about technologies, their risks, and actions that web visitors can take to reduce their risks goes a long way to engender trust. Providing accurate, easy-to-understand information about cookies and how the company uses them, along with clear choices about which (if any) cookies the web visitor wants to allow will help people make the right choices for themselves.