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General discussion (archive)How do YOU tell which websites are safe?(52 posts)(52 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted June 24, 2011
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Druidshinobi: After getting my new computer i've been very careful about what websites to visit and never click links that i don't know about, obviously this might be standard stuff to most people but when i was younger and had my old computer i found that i used to get hit by a few viruses here and there.

Now that i'm older and (Questionably) wiser internet security is my number 1 priority, I have firefox installed with Adblocker Plus aswell as NoScript and Betterprivacy and of course an Anti-Virus, this is how i usually protect my computer.

But my question is how do YOU protect your computer or rather, Which websites do you know NOT to go on or which links Not to click? Do you use MCafee site advisor or a different website to determine which websites to go on or do you just go to a website and hope your addons and Anti-Virus will do the job for you?
You're pretty much doing way beyond what most folks do. You won't get hit with a drive by poisoned ad. The second biggest infection vector is PDFs, so unless it's government provided or maybe a manual from a legitimate business I tend to avoid those.

I rarely enable Javascript for anything but the site I'm visiting. Flashblock helps too, so if you enable a site it's Flash doesn't start playing immediately.

If you care about privacy I'd add Ghostery to your list (yes, I am aware of who bought them, it still seems to be working, however).

For AV I use Avast! which is free for home use.

Or, if you're willing running Ubuntu or some other Linux makes you a smaller target (and sudo/su is set up way more sanely than Win 7's UAT).
Posted June 24, 2011
Adblocker Plus
WOT
NoScript
Betterprivacy
Microsoft Security Essentials
Sandboxie
Comodo Firewall
Immunet
Dr. Web link scanner

I don't play around.
Posted June 24, 2011
Use Web of Trust (WOT), you can get the idea whether a site is safe, reliable or not based on the community ranking. It is pretty neat small add-on. It prevent you from entering sites that is in "red" zone.
Posted June 24, 2011
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wormholewizards: Use Web of Trust (WOT), you can get the idea whether a site is safe, reliable or not based on the community ranking. It is pretty neat small add-on. It prevent you from entering sites that is in "red" zone.
Or pretty much every porn related site or link in existence. ;)
Posted June 24, 2011
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orcishgamer: The second biggest infection vector is PDFs, so unless it's government provided or maybe a manual from a legitimate business I tend to avoid those.
How good is Adobe Reader X in preventing PDF-related attacks? Last I heard, they built in some sandbox thingie in that version.
Posted June 26, 2011
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orcishgamer: The second biggest infection vector is PDFs, so unless it's government provided or maybe a manual from a legitimate business I tend to avoid those.
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Miaghstir: How good is Adobe Reader X in preventing PDF-related attacks? Last I heard, they built in some sandbox thingie in that version.
They're still patching zero day exploits in it. I think they'vs had 3-4 in the last 8 weeks.
Posted June 27, 2011
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A_Future_Pilot: I have never gotten a virus on my computer and I've been surfing the web for years. MOST viruses you have to actually download...they won't just appear by going to a website.
So did I, until one day, megagames dot com proved me wrong. It used to be a safe site, and chocked with good freeware that most of teh interwebz has probably never even heard of. Then one fine morning...
To OP: my PC is loaded with a lot of software. The full list includes:

COMODO Firewall
Avast Antivirus
Malwarebytes Anti Malware
Mailwasher
Superantispyware
Spyware Blaster
Hijack This (pretty useless now though)
Web of Trust (Firefox)
NoScript (Firefox)
Adblock Plus (Firefox)

Paranoid much? Yeah. But better safe than sorry. You'd also do well to bookmark the following sites if you need to verify the safeness of sites that you surf:

http://www.urlvoid.com
http://virusscan.jotti.org/en
http://www.virustotal.com

Lastly of course through word of mouth and common sense. As far as I'm concerned, WOM tends to be through online communities too, since no one around me tends to give more than a dollar about cyber security :P
Post edited June 27, 2011 by lowyhong
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This is my favourite topic
Community
General discussion (archive)How do YOU tell which websites are safe?(52 posts)(52 posts)
(52 posts)