ANSWERS: 1
  • The bottom line is that you may not be able to know for sure whether a website is virus-free. It's no different from real-life, biological viruses. How do you know for sure if another person has a virus or not? You can't be completely sure about something like that. It's the same with computers and the Internet. All you can really do is educate yourself so that you can make good judgments when you go online.

    Anti-Virus Protection

    Many people own anti-virus software which evaluates all incoming websites for viruses and other exploitations. These programs can be a big help to you and your computer, sparing you the hard work of keeping up to date on all the potential kinds of risks, and giving you a little more leeway to browse unknown sites. In addition to conventional anti-virus software like Norton, one of the best things you can do to protect yourself from viruses is to disable scripts and plug-ins from automatically executing when you load a webpage. Many viruses exploit these rich media technology, and by disabling scripts you can visit a website and look at it in this "turned off" form before deciding whether or not to enable scripts and have the full website experience. If you use Firefox as your web browser, "NoScript" is the most popular script blocker.

    Others Have Been In Your Position

    With the Internet, you can usually assume that any problem you face has already been faced by somebody else. As it so happens, several businesses have developed technology to evaluate the trustworthiness of a suspicious site. If you want to visit a suspicious website and don't know if it has viruses, you can consult with one of these services, such as Web of Trust or McAfee SiteAdvisor. Just supply the URL of the suspicious site (before actually visiting the site) and you will be shown a report on its estimated trustworthiness. Depending on which evaluation service you use, these reports offer some combination of user-based feedback, associative inferences (i.e., does the site link to other, known bad sites?), and active testing for viruses. These reports are not foolproof, but they can help you to make a better-informed decision about whether to visit the suspicious site.

    Obviously Risky Sites

    In addition to protecting yourself with technology, you can also practice some good old-fashioned common sense. Websites distributing pornography or facilitating Internet piracy are often packed with viruses, malware, spyware and adware. Avoid these sites altogether or proceed with exceptional caution.

    Source:

    Get Safe Online: Browse the Internet Safely

    More Information:

    McAfee SiteAdvisor

    Web of Trust

    NoScript

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