this post was submitted on 27 Mar 2025
688 points (99.0% liked)
Technology
68066 readers
3756 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related news or articles.
- Be excellent to each other!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
- Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.
Approved Bots
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I've clicked an obvious phishing link once in an isolated environment with a hardened browser on purpose. It had a tracking link and all and the URL was just ever so slightly off. Nothing happened on the target page though. No attempted script execution, no iframes, no cross site shenanigans, no weird popups or a fake login UI urging me to enter my credentials asap.
Someone from my company's security department called me shortly, telling me how I've failed the obvious phishing exercise and I had to undergo a half hour long mandatory awareness training. Wasn't getting out of that one.
Is there anything bad that can happen if you just click a link without logging in or anything? How is it different from opening up a random search result?
Not all phishing links are related to credential theft or trying to get you to download something malicious. Zero-day vulnerabilities in web browsers are revealed constantly. A malicious website (or malicious content embedded into an otherwise benign website) can leverage these or other unpatched vulnerabilities when visited.
You should never follow a known or suspected phishing link unless it's your job and you are using the appropriate tools and techniques. Just report it to the security department or delete it and move on with your day.
Does that also mean I should not browse any websites I don’t already know? That’s very limiting.
I never said that. I said do not follow known or suspected phishing links. It takes practice and skill, and it is not always simple. But if you know if it is a risk, you should consider avoiding the risk.
"This looks like it might be phishing. Let me check it out and see what's on the other side." <--- That's what I am suggesting to avoid.
Security is an onion: layered. Patched software. Good, unique passwords. MFA. Various security defense tools. But technology can have gaps, flaws, or be circumvented. It's important to keep in mind that us as individuals are also a security layer, and are often the first or last line of defense.