How to Identify and Protect Yourself from an Unsafe Website

Smartphones were not commonly used to browse the web over the past years, but with the development of these devices and the speed and ease of use they provide, they have become the default choice when you want to do anything on the web, whether accessing your account with social networks, shopping, watching or playing favorite games, all of this has become Easy with your phone that you carry with you wherever you are and this trend is taken into account by hackers and accordingly they design malicious websites to target smartphone users, so how do you know if a website is safe while using the smartphone? And what are the consequences if you don't?

What happens on unsecured sites?

Some people take a more relaxed approach to their security while browsing the Internet with a smartphone. Because they think phones are more difficult to infect with viruses than computers, unfortunately, this is a bug that hackers exploit and being on a malicious website can be costly no matter what device you use to browse. Here are some potential threats:

Falling into a scam

If you buy something from a fraudulent website then it is clear that the hacker will not care which device you are using as it is easier than ever to create fake online stores. Most of them have been designed to target smartphone users.

Password theft

Phishing websites are designed to appear as legitimate websites but when you enter your password you are actually talking to a criminal. This can empty anything from your social media account to your bank account and even steal your identity and personal data. These malicious websites are more effective on smartphones because the small screen helps hide flaws and not easily reveal them.

Your phone can be infected with a virus

Malware is a much bigger problem on computers than on smartphones. But this does not mean that the smartphone cannot be infected with a virus. Every time you visit a malicious website you risk that your device will start behaving strangely as a result and don't forget that there are malicious apps and links that can access a lot of your privacy on the device.

Most malicious websites are easy to spot provided you know what to look for, and here are eight ways to check if a website is safe on your smartphone.

Look for errors

Some malicious websites are very professional and you cannot tell their purpose just by looking at them. But most of them have drawbacks. For example, you may notice misspellings or generic images.

It is easy to miss these drawbacks when using a smartphone. Before handing over any information, it's a good idea to take some time to get to know the site a little better.

Check HTTPS Protocol

HTTPS encrypts information as it passes from one device to another. If the website is not equipped with HTTPS it is possible that any information you provide will be stolen via a Man-in-the-Middle or man-in-the-middle attack and remember that having HTTPS does not mean you are on a legitimate website. But if this feature is missing then the website is probably not reliable.

And all popular browsers display a locked padlock in the URL bar when visiting a website using HTTPS. If you see an open lock instead, you should walk away and open another trusted site.

Beware of popups

Cybercriminals love to use pop-ups for all kinds of malicious purposes. They can be used to display ads that are difficult to get out of or they can trick you into visiting a different URL than the one you requested, of course not all popups are malicious but unless you have reason to trust the website you are visiting usually the popups mean that the site should be avoided.

Search for permission requests

If a website wants to access anything on your phone other than a browser, it must first obtain your permission. Legitimate sites ask for permissions all the time so you don't have to worry about this but if you are asked to download something or provide access to potentially private information it is important to proceed with caution.

Check the URL

Many malicious websites can be identified just by looking at the URL, but scam websites often try to masquerade as legitimate by using a name similar to the original, which is why hackers resort to slightly similar domain names. If you see any of these things, you should avoid the website and get out quickly.

Use the search engine

  All legitimate websites are indexed by Google. If you are looking for a website and you can't find anything then you are probably looking for something malicious and for this, you can rely on search engines that are useful in identifying scams. Unless you are on a very reputable site you should always check customer reviews and ratings before handing in your payment details.

A copy for the phone

All professional websites are now optimized for use on mobile devices. This is partly because Google won't send a lot of traffic to a website if it doesn't have a smartphone version.

If you notice that a website is not optimized for the small screen, this should be treated as a signal to stop, for example, if an online store does not provide a copy for smartphone users, it may be because it is planning to steal them.

Use a utility

VirusTotal is a popular website that allows you to scan any link, file, or even website and URL. It will tell you if a website has been flagged as malicious in the past. It also allows you to check the website yourself using a set