Think before you click that link!

By Stephen Speregen
Managing editor
 

   It is sad to say an awful lot of infections come from the end user's ability to spot a bogus link even when they think they are on the right page or it is an email that came from someone they know (how do you know they are not infected and turned into a bot* infecting their friends.

Most Malware comes from email, E postcards, unsafe web sites, drive by infections and when you least expect it. (Drive By Infections are malware placed on common websites we all go to!)

Some of the latest pieces of Malware are: Winfixer, Vurtumondo that will use a popup to tell you that you are infected and to click here (for Win Anti Virus 2004 to 2010. These are extortion attempts to get you to buy their product which is in fact the malware!
Below is an example of email that was converted to plain text and it tells the tail of deceit...

Please note this is not from Sprint.com it is from phones@precisian.info!

This is a header that has been modified to show something else.

Notice where it is going to a vac.precisian.info web site not Sprints site.
Going to this site could be a big mistake!

This is just one example to get you to think before you click that link.
I check out links before I click on them for the fact that a reload of your hard drive could take anywhere from 8 to 30 hours! Your data is at risk even if you think you don't have any think about this: Your address book, photos, songs, favorites, personal stuff (my docs) could all be gone in a flash or compromised.

Take the time to learn a few things like RIGHT CLICK and View Source!

You can almost read HTML files and not be a webmaster, if you see websites you do not want to go to or you see redirects to some other site such as above don't do it!

Think before you click!!!

*Bot as in robot infecting machine using everyone in your address book of an infected computer to infect everyone it sends out to.  I was infected by my own mother's computer sending out Malware so no one is safe.

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