Question about website blocking

[AnxiousGuy]

Not sure if this is the right place for this question but figured I'd ask it here since a Yes or No to my inquiry would really be helpful to me. So, I recently got directed to u.cubeupload which through a few searches on here I know is harmful. Since malwarebytes blocked me from accessing the page, it sent me to the "Website Blocked due to Malware, we strongly recommend you don't continue" page when I opened the link, I'm all good right? I didn't continue so I just want to make doubly sure I'm clean?

[David H. Lipman]

Yes.  You were blocked from accessing the site so end of story.

 

[AnxiousGuy]

Additionally I wanted to ask, is looking at images embedded from the website harmful? I suppose since malwarebytes isn't blocking them from showing it isn't, only visiting the website itself is the problem right?

[David H. Lipman]

If your are viewing images or reading text, you are "rendering" the content of a website.  It is not one or the other, it is the fact you have visited that web site and thus rendered the content and if that web site is malicious, it may perform some malicious action.  There are many kinds of malicious actions and not all of them mean instantaneous infection on your part.  It is a possibility but of low occurrence.  A web site can be considered malicious not by its actions but  by the contents the site purports.  The following are examples of HTML.FakeAlerts and none have any components of infecting a computer.  Rather they are all about Social Engineering which is a human exploitation.  They are about portraying a fraudulent event and in that portrayal will try to convince you to shell-out money.

FakeAlert-Screens.pdf  /  Flash Version

Malwarebytes will do what it can to block any site that has been shown to be malicious or is part of a malicious scheme.  Of course Malwarebytes must have some knowledge of that site to block it and since they can't know everything, some site may not be blocked and may exhibit some form of malicious activity.  But, most don't mean just visiting them means instantaneous infection.  If you maintain the computer properly and install Windows Updates and software updates, that possibility of instantaneous infection gets lowered substantially.  I mentioned Social Engineering which is the Human Exploit.  Software updates mitigate Software Vulnerabilities that a malicious web site may try to exploit.

Thus anti malware software, education, situational awareness, understanding and maintaining the system will all minimize the risks presented when visiting a possibly malicious web site.

 

 

Edited December 29, 2018 by David H. Lipman
Edited for content, clarity, spelling and grammar

[David H. Lipman]

Anything else ?

[AdvancedSetup]

Glad we could help.

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