There are many security problems that we can suffer simply by browsing the Internet and entering any web page. There are many types of malware, many attacks that are organized by hackers with the aim of stealing our passwords, credentials and affecting the proper functioning of the devices. In this article we are going to talk about some basic aspects to take into account to check if a link is secure .
Simple methods to know if a link is dangerous
As we say, there are many techniques that hackers can use to attack us. They use malicious software, Phishing attacks, fake updates, files that they send us … Simply through a link they could also attack us.
Let’s take as an example that we receive an email with a link where we are invited to enter to download a program or enter a web page. A link that, in short, takes us to a third site. At first we don’t know if it can be safe or not. However there are some clues that we can take into account.
Put the mouse over the link
Something basic is simply hovering the mouse pointer over the link . It will automatically show us the full link at the bottom of the browser. We will know exactly which address it redirects us to.
Keep in mind that on many occasions what a dangerous link does is have an appearance that has nothing to do with it. That is, the name, the letters that we see in that link, may not be related to the real address to which it redirects. Hence, simply by passing the mouse over it we can know what that full address is.
Inspect a link
Let’s say that we are browsing a web page that has different links and we do not know if they are reliable or where they actually redirect. There is a method that we can consider and that is to inspect the website.
To do this we have to right -click on the page and click on Inspect. It will automatically open a window with all the website code, where we can see everything, including any links that may exist.
But if we simply want to analyze a specific link, what we have to do is click with the second button of the mouse on that link and again we inspect it. It takes us directly to the piece of code that corresponds to that link and we can see where it redirects.
Use an online tool
These steps that we have mentioned can be done without the need to install anything or use any third-party service . However, we can use online tools that allow us to analyze a certain link that causes us doubts.
In this sense we have many options available and free of charge. An example is URLVoid . There we simply have to paste the link that does not give us guarantees and analyzes it, to see if it has any type of malware or something that could damage our security.
Detect dangerous shortened links
We have seen how to tell if a link is secure or not mainly by looking at the name. Now, it must be taken into account that on many occasions this link is shortened. Hackers use link snuffers to avoid showing the real address and have a higher chance of success.
We must also take this into account and therefore really knowing the address of a link is important. Again we have different services and one of them is GetLinkInfo . We just have to paste the shortened link and it will show us the full address. We leave you a tutorial where we explain how they can attack with a shortened link.