He is dangerous link (link) contained in an email received from a friend or stranger? It doesn't matter where it comes from, it's best not to click on links since you don't know where they will take you.
One of the fastest growing security issues these days is the ransomware, which is often spread by people who click without thinking on dangerous links, contained in emails, social networks, messengers and other chat tools.
Although you should be careful about all your online activities, it does not hurt to have a little help. Here are some tools to check if a link is secure.
What a Link Controller should do
There are two types of URLs:
- A regular URL, beginning with www, is followed by the site name and ends in .com or some other domain extension.
- An abbreviated URL, such as https://bit.ly/3xfQrlZ.
It does not matter if the link you received is a standard URL or a shortcut. If it is dangerous in any way, a link control tool should warn you about it. If the links may lead you to a compromised site, the link check will let you know. They will also report links that lead to malware, ransomware or something else dangerous.
The following control pages will help you uncover the truth about dangerous links. Check the link on more than one control page for best results.
Norton Safe Web
To scan a malware URL, simply paste the URL into the check box and click the search button. The Norton Safe Web will display a community review and reviews of the site.
As well as link checking based on Browser. Norton Safe Web offers two additional tools:
ScanURL
ScanURL is a standalone site that takes logging queries through a secure HTTPS connection seriously. Although spam checking displays ads, the results are good.
ScanURL surveys Google Safe Browsing Diagnostic, PhishTank, and the Web of Trust and provides information from the Whois file of the site you requested. The results will be accompanied by a ScanURL recommendation.
PhishTank - Phishing Link Checker
It does not focus on malware, but alerts you to phishing sites.
Once you provide a URL that you suspect is hosting a phishing page, PhishTank will check it. If the link is already in their database then you will get instant results. Otherwise, Mr website will give you a tracking number. Unfortunately, it's harder to check a phishing link than it is to automatically check malware links…
PhishTank is operated by OpenDNS. Anyone can contribute to the site and verify links submitted by other users.
Google Transparency Report
Google also has a handy link checker service. In the Google Transparency Report service, you can enter the URL that concerns you. A few seconds later, you will see the results on whether the site is trustworthy.
Detects links with malware, and links that lead to phishing pages.
VirusTotal Safe Link Checker
It is a multi-function scan tool. VirusTotal analyzes "suspicious files and URLs for various types of malware." The results of the scans are then reported to the online security community. Just visit the site, copy the URL that concerns you and paste it to perform a search.
PSafe Dfndr Lab
Just copy and paste the URL from an email, webpage, or instant message, etc. in the search tool. Click Check URL to see the results.
If the site is found in the PSafe Dfndr Lab database, the site will indicate whether or not you can trust it. If not, or if the site is not found, you need to be careful: "If you are not 100% sure about the URL or the site, you should not click."
Unlike the other checks we mention above, PSafe Dfndr Lab uses machine learning to identify “potentially unsafe URLs”. Additionally, the links are cross-referenced with suspicious URLs from other resources.
URLVoid
Finally, there is the URLVoid service, which offers a tool to help you "detect potentially malicious websites". As with other tools, just enter the suspicious URL and wait for the check. You will find information about its URL and history.
If you need to scan an IP address, URLVoid also offers an accompanying service, the IPVoid.
The above services will quench your curiosity but are not a panacea. Avoid any suspicious links, even if they seem correct. Use a sandboxed environment if you need to open it and sail safe.
