<html><body><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:times new roman, new york, times, serif;font-size:12pt"><div style="font-family: tahoma,new york,times,serif;"><font size="2">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. <br></font></div><div style="font-family: tahoma,new york,times,serif;"><font size="2"><br></font></div><div style="font-family: tahoma,new york,times,serif;"><font size="2">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!"<br></font></div><div style="font-family: tahoma,new york,times,serif;"><font size="2"><br></font></div><div style="font-family: tahoma,new york,times,serif;"><font size="2">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.</font></div><div style="font-family: tahoma,new york,times,serif;"><font size="2"><br></font></div><div style="font-family: tahoma,new york,times,serif;"><font size="2">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 <br></font></div><div style="font-family: tahoma,new york,times,serif;"><font size="2">to FY2012 Budget Requirements, that in fact actually links to malware.</font></div><div style="font-family:
tahoma,new york,times,serif;"><font size="2"><br></font></div><div><font size="2"><span style="font-family: tahoma,new york,times,serif;">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 </span></font><font color="black" face="arial" size="2"><a style="font-family: tahoma,new york,times,serif;" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.riverdalevfd.org/"><span class="" id="lw_1330453880_3">www.riverdalevfd.org</span></a><span style="font-family: tahoma,new york,times,serif;">, but the mouse-over says its pointing to evilspammerwantstoeatyourcreditcard.com, don't click.</span></font></div><div><br><font color="black" face="arial" size="2"><span style="font-family: tahoma,new
york,times,serif;"></span></font></div><div><font color="black" face="arial" size="2"><span style="font-family: tahoma,new york,times,serif;">The More You Know!</span></font></div><div><font color="black" face="arial" size="2"><span style="font-family: tahoma,new york,times,serif;">AF<br></span></font></div><div><br></div><div><br><blockquote style="border-left: 2px solid rgb(16, 16, 255); margin-left: 5px; margin-top: 5px; padding-left: 5px;"> <div style="font-family: times new roman, new york, times, serif; font-size: 12pt;"> <div style="font-family: times new roman, new york, times, serif; font-size: 12pt;"> <div dir="ltr"> <font face="Arial" size="2"> <hr size="1"> <b><span style="font-weight:bold;">From:</span></b> Lou King <lking@knob.com><br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">To:</span></b> "towntalk@riverdale-park.org" <towntalk@riverdale-park.org> <br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sent:</span></b> Sunday, February 26,
2012 1:50 PM<br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Subject:</span></b> Re: [RP TownTalk] Firefighters at Riverdale Fire Station<br> </font> </div> <br>
Truly sound advice Melissa,<br>if you don't recognize who is offering the link,<br><br><snip><br><br>Melissa Avery wrote, On 2/26/2012 11:32 AM:<br>> I and I am sure a lot of people do not click on links in email.<br><br> </div> </div> </blockquote></div> </div></body></html>