[RP TownTalk] IT Hygeine (Was "Re: Firefighters at Riverdale Fire Station")

[Andrew Farrington]

Actually, recognizing the source of a link is not enough.  While many malicious links will come in spam from addresses that are unknown, there are much more devious practices in wide use.  


It is common for malware to email links to everyone in an infected computer's address book, with a personal but generic message like "This is unreal.  You're not going to believe what those jerks are up to now!"


Also common is "phishing," where a message appears to be from a bank, corporation, or even public official, to trick the recipient into opening an attachment, clicking a link, or even logging into a false website thus compromising one's access credentials at the real one.

Even more evil, and the single most common way enterprises are breached, is spear-phishing, where an individual with desirable access is specifically researched and then targeted with custom-crafted messages and infrastructures.  One might receive a message appearing to be from one's boss, containing a link saying it's 

to FY2012 Budget Requirements, that in fact actually links to malware.

Point is, "knowing" the "source" is not actually protection.  However, with hyperlinks, there is an easy and effective way to check before clicking.  Usually if you "mouse-over" a link, your browser will display the actual target of the link.  If the text displayed says the link is to www.riverdalevfd.org, but the mouse-over says its pointing to evilspammerwantstoeatyourcreditcard.com, don't click.

The More You Know!
AF





>________________________________
> From: Lou King <lking at knob.com>
>To: "towntalk at riverdale-park.org" <towntalk at riverdale-park.org> 
>Sent: Sunday, February 26, 2012 1:50 PM
>Subject: Re: [RP TownTalk] Firefighters at Riverdale Fire Station
> 
>Truly sound advice Melissa,
>if you don't recognize who is offering the link,
>
><snip>
>
>Melissa Avery wrote, On 2/26/2012 11:32 AM:
>> I and I am sure a lot of people do not click on links in email.
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://riverdale-park.org/pipermail/towntalk/attachments/20120228/f9c6e78b/attachment.html>