Nowadays, most of us use IT devices and software online on a daily basis. At our workplaces but also at home. We read the newspapers, check our bank accounts, exchange photos and text with our relatives and friends, receive and send emails, and check our social media.
While we all know about viruses on our computers and phones, these are the simplest things that can happen to us. And, there’s pretty good software helping us to recognize and remove viruses as they attempt to come into our devices. But there’s more.
Imagine you are working on your computer at the office and you receive an email. The mail seems to come from a friend and it contains a text and a link you can click on. The link seems to point to a football match from one of the kids of that sender.
The short paragraph above uses the word ‘seems’ twice, and not without reason.
The mail seems to come from…
Does the email really come from that person? We certainly like it to be from that person!
If you hover your mouse pointer on the email address, it usually shows the real email address used to send the email. It may or may not be the email address you expected it to be…
If the email address that shows is not from that friend, then the email is a forgery and you cannot open it or trust the links in the email.
If the email address that shows is indeed from your friend, then at least you know it was sent from that person’s email address. But, as this address may be hacked, you still cannot be certain that it indeed was your friend that sent it.
The link seems to point to…
Links in emails are a primary manner to get you to install software on your computer that is harmful. This software is called malware for good reason, it attempts to take over your computer, or access your private or company files, or access secure services that you use regularly, eg internet banking.
So never click on a link in an email, or indeed a website, before you have checked the link is legitimate. How can you see that, you may ask. Again, you hover the mouse pointer over the link, this will show you the actual address where the link is pointing to. The address may or may not be the address you expected it to be…
Another weak point about the human brain is our ability to ‘read between the lines’. If a work is slightly misspelled, we still recognize it as a viable word. The same goes for links to websites, we recognize misspelled links as proper links.
Examples:
Assume that this link is sent to you in an email: www.google.com. This link may at first glance look like a link to the google search engine that you use every day. But in fact the link points to a Wikipedia page about malware. If you hover the mouse pointer on the google link, it will show you the real site that the link points to. In Chrome it will display the actual link in the bottom left corner, Edge will do the same, and other browsers may show it elsewhere.
In this example, I tried to con you into going to Wikipedia, but obviously, someone with bad intent might try to lure you to a site where they gain access over your data or computer.
Then you might get this link in you email: www.google.com. Again, this seems to point to google.com while it actually leads to googl.com, and lure you inte an unsecure connection.
If the link that shows is not where you expected to go, then do not click it. If it looks the same, check the link thoroughly to see if it indeed is the correct address.
How about my smartphone?
Today’s smartphones are in name still phones, but in fact are small computers. As pretty powerful computers at that! One of my own first computers (the 3rd one actually) cost me a small fortune and had 2 Mb RAM and a 40Mb disk. The standard model of that computer came with 1Mb RAM and 20Mb disk, but I opted for more. The software to run a simple model of smartphone could not run on that computer today. It has also been said that any smartphone was a more powerful computer than the computers onboard the Apollo missions that visited the moon. And most of us have email and access to internet on our smartphones.
So yes, what goes for computers, goes also for smartphones.
AI you say:
Only a few years ago, you’d recognize an email was likely a scam by the language used in it. There were spelling and grammar mistakes that already gave it away at a first glance.
Nowadays, the scammers use AI to generate the content for these emails. It is simple, it is free, and the text seems outstanding – no typos, no grammarly mishaps. Note the word seems, again…
The application of AI in generating text, but also in mimicking voices, has come so far that it might be wise to set a password for your kids to use in case of doubt. One day, you may be called by one of them, explaining they are in a bit of a pickle and need some money fast, ‘no cannot talk right now, it’s urgent, pleeease, promise to call you back later’. That predetermined password might be the only thing for you to determine if the request for money indeed comes from your child or a hacker.
In short:
If you get an email:
- Verify that the sender is who you think it is
- Verify links in the email
- Do they point to something you know: probably ok
- Do they point to unknown sites: do not click the link
If you’re surfing:
- Verify the links you can click on – before clicking them
Q & A:
- Q: So, do I still need an anti-virus program on my computer or smartphone?
A: Yes, you do, always! - Q: …
Happy surfing!
Paul
Sweden 2025-04
Editorial note/disclaimer:
- The above shows some of the basics of surfing and emailing. It is not, nor does it claim to be, complete!
- Ultimately, you and you alone are the risk manager.
- By being critical of what you see and where you go, you can avoid most of the pitfalls that online life provides us with on a daily basis.
- The above will be completed with new info regularly.