How to check if websites aren’t harmful even if they say “not secure”?
How do you know which websites are suspicious with malware and which are safe
Question marked as
You’re conflating some details. And you are seemingly seeking certainty, when there really isn’t any of that to be had.
The web browser showing “safe” (or the old 🔒 icon) has to do with the network connection security, and not a determination of the website contents. The connection itself is likely secure.
Whether or not a browser reports a website is “safe” (and that used to show the 🔒 icon) depends solely on whether that site has a digital certificate issued by any of zillions of free and paid providers. A phishing site or scam product seller with a valid certificate will routinely show as “safe”, too. As it should, as the connection is likely secure.
A website without a certificate will show as “unsafe”, but that determination is again unrelated to the website contents. A website without a certificate can be completely safe, and entirely benign. The risk here is if you provide credentials over a non-authenticated and non-encrypted network link. That would be unsafe, and the credentials can potentially be compromised.
As for determining whether the contents of a website are safe, that usually involves scanning the entire website, and that scan can potentially be served or can be redirected by a malicious website to completely harmless files, and not serving malicious files, presenting the appearance of a harmless website.
Trusted and established websites can also be breached, and can serve malware. I’m routinely getting scams from an Intuit service for instance, because the server can send out bills. Which can be fake bills. And many ofmus have been getting Apple Pay scams.
Web browsers seek to prevent malicious websites from downloading or performing malicious activities — but more than a few websites will still (falsely) show the ”you have (3) viruses!” popups, though.
Anybody claiming certainty here is selling you a scam too, particularly if they’re offering you an app or a hardware box that coats, soothes, and protects, or otherwise. Most of the reports of malware detections that get posted around here are false detections or are scam advertisements, too.
What to do?
Keep your Apple gear updated to current. Don’t re-use your Apple Account password or any other passwords. Enable and use two-factor authentication. Etc.
Be skeptical about what you download from where. The highest search results in Google or another search engine can be sketchy websites or scams or malware, for instance. Downloading cracked apps and keygen tools and side-loading apps can be installing malware too, as the cracked apps and keygen apps and key generating tools can also target the tool users for malicious activities and compromises, not just the app vendors.
Approach any claims — including my writing here — with some skepticism, too. The biggest threat lately is not viruses or malware, it’s adware y’all set out to load, including various “coffee shop” VPN apps and add-on security apps, and very commonly social engineering scams.
Some links:
PS: Huh. Look what I just found. Go figure. 😉
