Whoops! Be careful.

By clicking the link, you reached the LTS Internet security test page. While no damage has been done to you or your computer, this web page exists for the sole purpose of making you cautious of what links you click on.

What damage can be done by a bad link?

The best-case scenario is this one; you were redirected to a safe web page and nothing bad happened. This case is very rare.

The usual scenario is that you'd inadvertently download spyware that bogs down your computer resulting in a required spyware and virus scan.

There are two worst-case scenarios. One consists of you downloading a virus, losing network access, and being required to reinstall your computer. The other consists of becoming a victim to identity theft. Both can happen simultaneously.

How can links be modified like this?

The World Wide Web uses something called Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) to tag certain parts of a document to do certain actions. A web browser is designed to read and interpret the tags to display the page in a user-friendly form. You may see a link that looks like this: http://www.brandeis.edu. This link usually tells you exactly where it links. You may see a link that looks like this: Click Here. This link masks its linked page with descriptive text.

Clever people can dupe you into going to a dangerous website if you're not paying attention.

Why doesn't the page I go to look dangerous?

People now copy important web pages like bankofamerica.com in hopes that you wouldn't realize that you're submitting your credit card information to the wrong person. This is the basic premise behind identity theft and it is easy to fall prey to this deception if you aren't paying attention to what you are doing.

How do I protect myself?

To protect yourself from bad links

1. Make sure the link goes to a website you know. You can do this by right-clicking on it and copying the link to a text field. Don't navigate to that URL until you know it's safe.
2. If you get a link on IM that has text masking the linked address, be suspicious. Your friends won't go out of their way to mask the address from you, but malcontents will.
3. If someone sends you a link to myspace.com, facebook.com, or anything similar, navigate to that person's profile yourself. Go to the website's homepage and click your way to your friend's profile. It may waste some time, but it's worth it.
4. If you get a link that seems suspicious, ask the sender a random question. Some people program automated responses into the conversation so that asking if the link is bad gets a response of "of course it isn't." Sample questions may be:
5. • What is my middle name?
   • What state am I from?
   • Who is the group that released "Mmmbop?"

To protect yourself from bad websites

Just like #3 above, go to the site itself. Don't trust a webpage that looks like it. The best way to confirm the validity of a site is to make sure its address is what it should be. Be cautious of http://www.brandies.edu or http://www.bankofamerica_.com.

To protect yourself from fraudulent email

For information on how to avoid email threats, read our information on Email Dangers.

This page was last modified on: Mar 23, 2007