From the Webmaster
Over the years we've had numerous visitors to the website ask us for information that is really not pertinent to Circle Sanctuary but very pertinent to website surfing in general. This page is intended as an FAQ of sorts on handling some of the topics that we get asked about which are not Circle-specific but Internet technology specific.
Question: Can clicking on email links to read postcards or greeting cards or view photos at online photo album websites really harm my system? Even if the email comes from friends? Webmaster: Yes, it can.
When you click on a link embedded in an email, you have no idea what website you're really being sent to, or what code is actually being loaded into your system's memory, or what program is actually being installed on your system, or what information your harddrive is actually being examined for and being handed over to a stranger, or even who you're really replying to in your next email.
None.
There are some real jerks on the planet these days with lots of time on their hands, enough knowledge of how to hack into people's systems over the Internet, and an axe to grind, and one of the simplest and easiest ways for them to get you to do something to your system without you knowing about it is to count on your laziness whenever you receive an email with links in it. A safe example you can read about is the warning going around that reading email postcards can trash your harddrive:
Do you really believe that 'freebies' on the Internet (such as postcards, greeting cards or photo album services) are truly 'free?' Get real. There's a price for everything on the Internet, and what might seem like a convenience or a nifty service being offered to you 'for free' is only being offered 'for free' because someone other than you is directly benefiting by it.
Emails have been able to embed website and email address links in messages for a long time now, and a lot of messages get forwarded from people (usually with the best of intentions) when they don't having a clue what those links are actually doing to themselves or to you by clicking on them. Email links may imply that you'll be taken to a specified (and safe) website or that you'll be responding to a known (and safe) email address, but an email link can do more without you realizing it. Much more:
It can run a macro which examines information on your harddrive and sends it to strangers. this can include email addresses in your address book, private information in your operating system registry, usernames and passwords that you've stored in your web browser cache, financial information saved in popular tax handling programs like TurboTax -- you name it.
It can take you to a completely different website than you expect which accomplishes the same thing that would happen if you typed in the URL of a porn site. just going to a website can infect your system with trojans, worms, viruses, malware, adware, spyware, or install nasty and tough to remove technologies in your browser which can take forever to get rid of -- even if you're an expert at disinfecting systems. Some of these nasties are so sophisticated these days that they truly can destroy your harddrive.
It can send emails to people you don't know even as it sends the email correctly to the person you do know. Have you ever received email spam from an address that seemed to include a way too familiar name in it? If so, you can bet that someone's been reading your address book. Over 25% of the spamming technologies on the Internet these days know how to harvest your mail program records when you click on email message links in their messages.
In the same way that spammers count on you to fill out their database forms (with promises of your confidentiality being kept of course) for the sake of getting a freebie game or a place to store your photos or a resource for electronic postcards to send to your friends, spammers also rely on the ease of clicking an embedded link in an email message to visit a website or send an email reply. Once you click that link, you're in Oz, and you have no idea what you have instructed your mail program to do behind the big green curtain. And just because a link says it will do something -- even if it uses popular labels like amazon or ebay or kodak or USBANK in it --- doesn't mean it actually will.
There are two simple ways to avoid subjecting your system and your data to these kinds of threats. Yes, they take you an extra step or two to do, but ask yourself is spending an extra 10-15 seconds of your own typing/clicking worth keeping your system and your data safe, private and stable? If it is, then get in the habit of doing the following things whenever you receive an email from *anyone* that has links embedded in its message content:
1. If you receive a link that looks like it will take you to a website (such as one that has a postcard or a greeting card or photos waiting for you -- from *anyone*), don't click the link. Instead, open your web browser, manually type (or cut/paste) the URL to go to the website yourself and manually type in any codes you're given at that actual website to access the desired information (postcards, photos, greeting cards, whatever). If the link was bogus, the worst that will happen is that no postcard or greeting card or photos will be waiting for you.
2. If you receive a link that looks like it will email someone you know (or an email address at a supposedly reputable domain), don't click the link. Instead, launch your mail program, manually add the email address (or cut/paste it) in the To: field and create the message yourself. This will insure that you're not sending confidential information to a stranger.
In short, never click a link in an email message --- even if its from a trusted friend or source. Just don't do it. Visit websites by launching your browser yourself. Email people by launching your mail program yourself. Don't launch your web browser or your mail program by clicking on an email message link.
The Internet: where saying 'hello' to a stranger can mean saying 'goodbye' to your harddrive.
