Question:
Read a few times that in addition to all the AV, anti-spyware progs, etc, etc, it pays to be prudent about what sites you visit. !
Quite a few people have mastered the way of reducing a full link (http blah, blah, blah) down to 'Click this'.
Did make me wonder if there's anything to stop someone with malicious intentions (NOT that such a person would frequent this site) from linking to a malevolent site? !Would we know where we were being taken?
Discovered that if you right click on 'here' and then choose 'Properties', it gives the http address of the site the 'here' link is to - of course, you can't always tell from a web site name, but its some clue.
Expect this has been covered before / you guys already know this, but doubt I'm the only one not to know and not to have read through the complete list of site rules and instructions, etc. !(Tho I do usually have a skim through Licence Agreements before I download)
Or am I being overly security conscious?
Answers:
a lot of the time if you hover over a link, the address 'underneath' it should be displayed in your IE/browser status bar at the bottom of the current 'active' window(though again not sure if that can be spoofed but on the quick tests I just did it matched that found in properties)
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So it does! "less bovver to hover"??
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You should be more concerned when someone has craftily put the name of a legitimate website as the link, but the URL goes somewhere totally different.
Example:
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Well, equally concerned, now you've shown me. Guess the plan is, check before you click.
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This is exactly the same way that 'phishing' emails, purporting to be from banks, work.
Next time you get one, hover the mouse over a link such as 'hxxps://natwest.com' and see that the REAL destination for your web browser would be 'hxxp://gisall_yer_bank_details.com'.
Were you to be foolish enough to click on the link, which of course users of this site are not. ;D
A timely warning never hurts - much about phishing in the press last week.
Answers:
Thanks for that, LincsLad - something else I didn't know