Safe sites

[Supernovasky]

Obviously there are sites out there that are known to be safe, but how can you tell if a site is safe before visiting it.

I'm curious because today at school I went to a perfectly normal looking website and on the page were ads and I think the ad tried to load some trojan on the computer that the schools anti-virus blocked. This is the school and I'm not really concerned for them but at home what would be a way to know before ever clicking the link (if thats possible).

[DarkSnakeKobra]

Hi Supernovasky,

Hosts files will help block unsafe sites upon visiting. You can also look them up. Try running Sandboxie

. Sandboxie will prevent 100% of threats from getting in your system. Unless a vulnerability is known.

http://hosts-file.net/

http://www.unmaskparasites.com

http://www.whois.net/

http://ip-address-lookup-v4.com/

[kangaroo]

how is it possible to get a trojan by visiting a site from my knowledge you only can trojan from downloading and executing ".exe" files???

[mountaintree16]

Exploits (especially via outdated software such as Adobe Reader flash, Java, etc) or simply exploiting a security vulnerability present on the website itself, an infected advertisement, things like that.

[Supernovasky]

Exploits (especially via outdated software such as Adobe Reader flash, Java, etc) or simply exploiting a security vulnerability present on the website itself, an infected advertisement, things like that.

Yeah of course I'm not sure how it happened, I just know the schools outdated Kaspersky blocked some trojan thing. Plus the school still uses IE7, Java v6 build 14 or something , Adobe 7...etc most of their stuff is far from protected the only reason why nothing really gets on their systems is because of the use of Websense... but I mean they are very vulnerable to just about anything...

[mountaintree16]

Oh I know you know, I was replying to Kangaroo actually

That's not good that Kaspersky is outdated But at least it blocked the threat.

IE7 though is still supported and will continue to be for quite some time

[exile360]

Safe sites get hijacked/hacked all the time as well. I've seen infections and exploits on MSN, a Microsoft site (and many other safe sites as well, that's just an example). Certain sites and types of sites will certainly be more risky than others, but the only 100% safe site is the one you never visit so keep your defenses up by keeping your system up to date, good, active security software installed, and of course, use common sense. Stay away from the "free" stuff that sounds too good to be true, avoid P2P and stay away from social networking sites unless you absolutely need to use them.

[666philb]

Web of trust is a good plugin for your browser......

"The WOT add-on is a safe surfing tool for your browser. Traffic-light rating symbols show which websites you can trust when you search, shop and surf on the Web. "

http://www.mywot.com/

[DarkSnakeKobra]

Yes WOT is very good. Have installed on FX.

[Blaze]

You can install WOT on your computer as a browser plug-in, it's quite neat .

Other than that, you can also look up a website on their homepage.

If you want to look up websites, you can also use the ones below:

http://safeweb.norton.com/

http://browsingprotection.f-secure.com/swp/

http://hosts-file.net/

[YoKenny1]

WOT is user biased.

I prefer

Finjan SecureBrowsing is a free service that proactively alerts you to potential malicious content hiding behind links of search results, ads and other selected web pages. Finjan SecureBrowsing accesses each of the URLs in its current form on the web, and scans the relevant pages in real time using Finjan's patented behavior-based technology. Finjan SecureBrowsing then displays a safety rating next to each link it has scanned.

http://securebrowsing.finjan.com/about.html

[Supernovasky]

I would use Finjan but its only Firefox and IE compatible I hate both. I thought about WOT but as kenny said its user rated and I used to use and I remember coming across a lot of poorly rated things.

[kangaroo]

my sister was exploited with some java exploit virus thank god i read this topic now i learned virus not only spreads, through spam e-mail,usb,cd-from, but also website I am soo happy .. "knowledge is power" !

[Cdog]

I would use Finjan but its only Firefox and IE compatible I hate both. I thought about WOT but as kenny said its user rated and I used to use and I remember coming across a lot of poorly rated things.

I'm curious about what Browser you do prefer..... ?

[mountaintree16]

Hi Cdog and welcome!

I personally use Firefox the most, as I prefer it. It isn't necessarily any safer than Internet Explorer BUT if you use the add-ons NoScript and AdBlockPlus then that will make for a much safer Firefox experience.

I use Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, and Orca Browser, but primarily Firefox and then Internet Explorer. I would primarily use Opera browser actually but unfortunately on my computer memory lows and then large spikes, off and on, occur so I can't really use it very often on my current computer.

As a side note, when replying, please use the "ADD REPLY" button located at the bottom of to page. Thank you!

[nathaniel]

try mcafee website advisor just goggle it and u can download it its very good it tells u how many pops up and stuff try it ok? =D

[control]

AVG LinkScanner

http://linkscanner.avg.com/

[YoKenny1]

nathaniel

I know that mcafee website advisor rates known malware sites Green and is un-reliable:

http://www.siteadvisor.com

[ShyWriter]

FREE "ANYTHING"... is *usually* a pretty good warning of an UNSAFE site.

So free nude pix, free music (your mileage may vary on just this one - music), free videos of 1st-run movies, free software (unless it's CNET, SoftPedia or similar that virus-scans ALL their downloads), key-code cracks, phreaking, how-to-make explosives, etc, et al (you see where I'm going with this; yes?) is/are a pretty good indicator the site is NOT safe.

~Shy