Myth 1:

Visiting only trusted sites is good enough to avoid a malware infection.

Fact 1:

Attackers of the present time are far ahead than their ancestors. Earlier, a website’s integrity could be vouched by the presence of ‘https’ in its URL and the lock sign. However, this is not so anymore. Security experts have come across sites that despite having ‘https’ in their URL are compromised and host malicious codes or designed for phishing attack. To make a long story short, every site on the Internet could be a booby trap for an unware user.

Myth 2:

Mobile Internet browsers are safer than that of PCs and desktops.

Fact 2:

Mobile browsers may not be safe as you might think. It is even difficult for most security experts to realize if their mobile browsers have landed on a potentially dangerous website. In most websites on mobile, the address bar is hidden by default. The address bar is crucial in order to establish if the website is secure or not. According to studies, mobile users are 3 times more likely to land on phishing websites than desktop users. To add to this, shopping online via mobile apps is risky if done through third party apps and not the ones from the official websites.

Myth 3:

Your computer can get infected only if you download something or click suspicious links on websites.

Fact 3:

Gone are the days when hackers kept waiting for the user to visit a website, click a download link or a random button, to drop a malware on the system. Hackers have increasingly started taking advantage of security vulnerabilities in Internet browsers, plugins and even the operating system. One scary technique that hackers have developed to attack users is called drive-by download. Here, the user’s computer can get infected by simply visiting a website. The malicious download will initiate automatically in the background without the user’s knowledge.

Myth 4:

Browsing on MACs are safer than on PCs

Fact 4:

One long standing web security myth is about MACs, that they are impervious to malware attacks. While it cannot be denied that MACs are more secure than PCs, they are as vulnerable as their counterparts. Their lack of use in businesses, and less user base than PCs, make them unattractive for hackers. But, now as their popularity scale is rising, hackers are exploring new grounds to take them down.

Given these few myths and their corresponding facts, it is evident that web security is not more about visiting the right website on the right machine. Hackers have their hands all over the Internet. What can be done is getting your online experience secure with a multilayered security solution; one that protectively blocks infected and phishing websites, and offers protection against attacks such as drive-by downloads. Same goes for a reliable mobile security solution that can protect your mobile devices from Internet attacks.