In order to access the Internet, you and your staff might use an internet browser like Microsoft’s Edge/Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome.  Searching for valuable data, trying to find out how to do something, or researching information are all great uses for browsing online and why many companies choose to allow their staff to browse the web freely.

Unfortunately, many web pages that appear totally safe and secure may contain infections and malware via various points on the webpage. Infections can spread to your computers through corrupted pop-up ads, search engine hijackers, or links that you click on, which take you to an infected site and result in downloading infected software to your computer.

Knowing how to spot these red flags on websites can help you and your employees avoid malicious software that could affect your computers, data, and privacy.

Signs to Watch for While Browsing the Web

Recognizing these wicked cyber tricks while browsing a website can help you determine if the site is unsecure or infected with malicious software.

Malicious Links - Many websites implement links that may navigate you away from the webpage you’re on.  Additionally, websites which may be infected with malware may place links on random words that will navigate you to malicious content, or even download a malware-laden file to your computer.  It’s always a good idea to hover your mouse over a link to view where that link will go before clicking on it.

The bottom portion of your browser should tell you exactly where the link will take you before clicking on it.  You should also get a warning from your browser that clicking a link will navigate you away from the page you’re on and ask to make sure you’re ok with leaving the page.

Infected Ads – Advertisements (Ads) are as much a part of the internet as anything else is now.  Companies use ads to help pay for the website and keep the site active.  Unfortunately, ads are also a very common target for malicious code.  Ad windows that you see within the content you’re reading online or on the sites of the webpage are easy targets because they’re often not controlled by the website master or host.

It is best to avoid clicking ad windows on any webpage.  If you happen to see an ad window advertising something you’re interested in, it is best to look it up separately from the product or service’s official site.

Search Engine Hijacker – Search engines are extremely useful when trying to find information or websites that contain information for things we are searching for on the web.  Google is one such search engine that caters to millions of websites and users every day.

Sometimes when your computer becomes infected, it will redirect your browser away from a search engine, like Google, and to another page that may look similar to Google or another search engine.  This is known as a search engine hijack, because it is automatically navigating you to another page when you’re trying to go to a specific search page such as google.com.  The search engine it navigates you to will often give you less efficient search results, and likely take you to other infected web pages.

If you’re being automatically navigated to another page when you type in a specific webpage like Google.com, then it’s best to get your computer cleaned of infections first rather than using the infected search engine.

Tools That Can Help Keep You Protected While Browsing

There are several tools that are free for use that can help you and your office stay protected and prevent browsing infected websites.

Ad Blockers – There are a variety of ad blocking plugins that you can download for free on your browser’s official plugin page.  Ad blockers can help remove ads on the pages you browse, preventing infected ads from showing up, and offering an overall cleaner browsing experience.

Ghostery – Ghostery is another free-to-use plugin which helps block communications from your browser back to a webpage’s collection server.  Ghostery matches webpages against a database of data collection tools. If certain criteria matches up, it blocks the communication thereby helping to prevent unwanted data collection.

Web of Trust – The Web of Trust (WOT) plugin is an add-on that helps prevent scams, infected websites, and phishing scams by assigning them rank-based on-crowd-sourced information, like reviews and experiences, from their global members.  This enables WOT to protect users against these threats (i.e. unreliable web stores, and questionable content).

Anti-Virus – Having an up-to-date anti-virus program running on your computer also helps prevent and warn of infections that could harm your computer or browser.  Anti-virus software running on your computer should keep an updated database of potentially harmful software and can help keep your computer free of infections.

Managed IT companies, like Natural Networks, can be an integral part of keeping your office computers clean and free of infections as well.  Our trained experts can monitor computers for infections and help keep them up-to-date to prevent potentially harmful software from interrupting your work.  If you’re interested in learning more, give us a call today.