Comments on: “I don’t want to belong to any club…” http://www.mckeay.net/2007/08/23/i-dont-want-to-belong-to-any-club/ The views of one man on security, privacy and anything else that catches his attention Sun, 20 Jul 2008 01:26:49 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=abc By: Scott Wright http://www.mckeay.net/2007/08/23/i-dont-want-to-belong-to-any-club/#comment-974 Scott Wright Sat, 25 Aug 2007 04:01:49 +0000 http://www.mckeay.net/2007/08/23/i-dont-want-to-belong-to-any-club/#comment-974 It's actually getting so that I give the explicit instructions to everyone I talk to about spam and phishing **not to click anywhere in an email if you weren't expecting it**. While it's a smart idea not to allow images to be displayed in HTML emails until you are sure about them (or even not to autopreview), some people can't be bothered to figure out how to change the configuration. As well, some new spams only contain one thing, an image link. If you click anywhere to get the image (just to see what it is about) it's as bad as clicking on a normal link embedded in an email. And it's worth reminding people that just because it says "http://www.paypal.com/members/login.php" and looks legitimate, doesn't mean that's where the link is going to take you. Outlook and some other email agents are getting better at popping up a tip that shows the real destination, but that can be missed if you click too fast. Just don't click anywhere if you aren't expecting it. Even better, if you know how, turn off autopreview and HTML image loading in your email agent. If you don't know how, ask someone. It’s actually getting so that I give the explicit instructions to everyone I talk to about spam and phishing **not to click anywhere in an email if you weren’t expecting it**.

While it’s a smart idea not to allow images to be displayed in HTML emails until you are sure about them (or even not to autopreview), some people can’t be bothered to figure out how to change the configuration.

As well, some new spams only contain one thing, an image link. If you click anywhere to get the image (just to see what it is about) it’s as bad as clicking on a normal link embedded in an email.

And it’s worth reminding people that just because it says “http://www.paypal.com/members/login.php” and looks legitimate, doesn’t mean that’s where the link is going to take you. Outlook and some other email agents are getting better at popping up a tip that shows the real destination, but that can be missed if you click too fast.

Just don’t click anywhere if you aren’t expecting it. Even better, if you know how, turn off autopreview and HTML image loading in your email agent. If you don’t know how, ask someone.

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