Cyber Security

Protecting Your Information By Prevention

Would you rather be safe or sorry?

What's the big idea?

Presently, there exists the possibility to redirect the URL after clicking the original one to a more malicious site. Here, I'll explain how to check a link for malicious intents. Also, I'll present you with some information on protecting your information on the sites you do visit.

Information on this topic by others.

How would this affect me?

A breach in your information can lead to a whole detangling of piece of private information after piece of private information. If the idea of that happening to you doesn't alarm you, it should. Not to be purposefully inciting fear but during our arrival to an unprecedented technological age, your digital fingerprint should at least be protected to a minimum.

Why you should care.

Here's What You Can Do

DEF +5

How to detect malicious redirecting URLs

Luckily, there are sites dedicated to helping people defend their security by preventing the situation in the first place. virustotal.com allows you to input a link and will go through the process it would send you through, were you to click it. Afterwords, it will display the data it's gathered; like all the links it is suppose to direct to and if any malicious or suspicious activity was detected by their anti-virus definitions. Granted, if you are given a random link out of nowhere and aren't aware as to why or how, common sense should also be employed. For a video explanation, click here!

A sneak peek at the destination

So, you want to see where the link will take you visually, here's the bit for you. With urlscan.io, you can plug in the link and wait for the magic to happen. With their settings, allowing the scan to be public, private, or unlisted, they can find what the link's interface will be. This is a way to see where you'll be going without exposing your device to unknown lurkers. From then on, if it's where you're meant to go, then by all means, proceed. But if it's not what you thought, then I suggest avoidance. Common sense is a big factor, once again. But this is a handy tool available for use free of charge just like the other one! ^-^

To be or not to be

Now, you're at the website, and it asks you to input information. Would you- *should* you? Here's a quick tip: check the URL. A rather simple method to decide if your inputted information would be secure once given is by knowing the difference between http:// and https:// Said difference is the one letter: "s" which comes to represent whether it'll be encrypted. Therefore, https:// is more secure compared to http:// I'm sure a sensible deduction can be inferred as to why but, with the site's information encrypted, yours will be too and people will have a harder time decoding it than they would on an average http:// site. For a video explanation, click here!

The realization settles in

Reading up this far, it's been realized: so my past actions- have they been safe? Lemme give you a bit of help: at avast.com/hackcheck/ it will ask you to input your email address and will check their database of registered data breaches of companies that the email is registered with, meaning to check if your information was at possible risk. Say something is found, then there's no harm in changing your password for that account. This is a second step in protecting your information from further invasion. This service is free and readily available, with Avast also offering an anti-virus program on their site. For a video explanation, click here!