The browser doesn't have access to the MAC. Google *could* (and probably is) checking the IP address, but it's all heuristics because your IP address may change at any time, e.g. cell phones have very unstable IPs, hop in a plane and land with an IP from another country, etc.
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There aren't really any other tools browsers can use for this right now. The process of logging in looks like basically: you type your password in google, google gives you back a cookie, your browser makes a request with that cookie and the server knows who it's for.
Interestingly that doesn't even matter for this since it wasn't the "normal" phishing style attack. Don't open files you download is the only safe thing, or open them on a machine that isn't logged in to anything. That obvs isn't practical, so it's a lot harder in practice.
No, the cookies are how the browser is logged in to google. No passwords needed, 2fa doesn't matter. I'm thinking I might need to make a video on this.
It was a windows executable disguised as a .scr file, no keylogger needed for this, it was able to pick up the browser cookies from the hard drive. It could have happened on Mac just as easily.
omg what a mess! So sorry this is happening to you! If you aren't completely overwhelmed I'd love to help get to the bottom of how this happened. Online security is my jam. Feel free to DM me.
I use a teleprompter about 50% of the time, writing a script takes so long I just skip that and jump straight to recording sometimes.
I do just one take off the prompter though, I don't think it comes off looking like I'm reading.
PureData is like a free Max/MSP and isn't that bad for doing relatively simple connections like this. Might be fun to learn cause it opens up a bunch of neat stuff!