Clicking on a link can lead you to a great new discovery or a world of trouble. How do you know if that link is legitimate or a gateway to a malicious site? We have a few tips to help you decide if it’s safe to proceed.
1. Be Suspicious: If you receive an unsolicited link from someone you do not know or a link offering you something fabulous for no charge, you should avoid clicking on it. For example, “Click here to win a free iPad!” is a popular phishing scam that offers the device in exchange for completing a questionnaire. After you’ve surrendered your personal information, no iPad shows up.
2. Hover Over: Sometimes a link masks the website to which it links. If you hover over a link without clicking it, you’ll notice the full URL of the link’s destination in a lower corner of your browser. If the link url says something different than what the link is promising you when you hover over it, that can be an indication of misdirection.
3. Scan It: Link Scanners are websites and plug-ins that allow you to enter the URL of a suspicious link and check it for safety. There are many free and reliable link scanners to choose from. URLVoid scans a link using multiple services, such as Google, MyWOT and Norton SafeWeb. You will know in seconds if it’s safe to proceed.
4. Check Ratings: Another way to protect yourself from malicious links and web sites is the free Web Of Trust add-on for Firefox, Internet Explorer and Chrome. Web of Trust lets users rate the safety of websites and displays the ratings using icons that are the same color scheme as a stoplight. Green indicates a safe site, yellow signals that caution is needed and red means don’t go there! If the site has a gray icon, that means the site is new or there is not enough information to determine safety.
If you have questions or concerns about the security of your information and your users, call Teltek IT! We can implement measures that will keep the important information in and the bugs out.
Teltek is proud to offer IT services as the fourth component to our multi-systems approach as your single source technology services company. This Managed Service Provider (MSP) offering completes our longstanding goal to provide our clients with a one-call resource for all of their business technology needs. IT outsourcing, remote back up and disaster recovery, computer repair, helpdesk support, computer network relocations, security products and server/desktop virtualization are just a few of the services available.