Can I get hacked by clicking on a malicious link? What can I do to protect myself if I clicked on a malicious link?
The answer is simple; yes! Clicking on a link is you telling the computer I accept whatever this is and will go wherever this link takes me. The result is that you could download malware, a virus, or rootkit into your machine that allows it to be taken over by a hacker. It becomes part of a bot or botnet. The result is that your computer and its contents belongs to someone else. They can use it and do to it whatever they want. You may never even know this is happening. Some malware is designed to run 'in the background.' Meaning its doing things silently and secretly. In some instances you may end up with ransomeware. This is a program that takes your computer over completely and forces you to pay a ransome to get it back. See CryptoLocker - Ramsomeware Rises to New Dangerous LevelsIf you should click on link you believe or discover has delivered malware on your system you need to do an immediate scan using your up-to-date anti-virus program. Then go to the next step and use a root kit scanner. I use the Malwarebytes Beta Rootkit scanner but you could also use Kaspersky Labs free root kit tool. Keep in mind that malware will sometimes reveal itself. If you are lucky. It may change your homepage, add a toolbar or change your default search engine. That's if you're lucky. Unlucky means your files get encrypted, your system goes crazy and won't work or you start getting angry messages from friends claiming you infected their computers. Viruses and malware can send themselves to all your contacts. Unlucky means your passwords have been recorded using a key-logger and a hacker empties your bank accounts and steal your identity.Never click on any link you are not absolutely certain of. Especially in unsolicited email. If you get an email from a friend with an attachment or link don't click on it. Call them and ask them what is it? Maybe its their system that's infected?
Why do Twitter accounts get suspended?
This is the information provided by Twitter:About suspended accountsIn order to maintain a safe environment for users on Twitter, we may suspend accounts that violate the Twitter Rules. Common reasons for suspension may include:Spam: Most of the accounts we suspend are suspended because they are spammy, or just plain fake, and they introduce security risks for Twitter and all of our users. These types of accounts are against our Twitter Rules. Unfortunately, sometimes a real person’s account gets suspended by mistake, and in those cases we’ll work with the person to make sure the account is unsuspended.Account security at risk: If we suspect an account has been hacked or compromised, we may suspend it until it can be secured and restored to the account owner in order to reduce potentially malicious activity caused by the compromise.Abusive Tweets or behavior: We may suspend an account if it has been reported to us as violating our Rules surrounding abuse. When an account engages in abusive behavior, like sending threats to others or impersonating other accounts, we may suspend it temporarily or, in some cases, permanently.Can I unsuspend my account?You may be able to unsuspend your own account. If you log in and see prompts that ask you to provide your phone number or confirm your email address, follow the instructions to get your account unsuspended.Are you seeing a message that your account is locked? Your account may also be temporarily disabled in response to reports of spammy or abusive behavior. For example, you may be prevented from Tweeting from your account for a specific period of time or you may be asked to verify certain information about yourself before proceeding. Get help unlocking your account.File an appeal and we may be able to unsuspend your account. If you are unable to unsuspend your own account using the instructions above and you think that we made a mistake suspending or locking your account, you can appeal. First, log in to the account that is suspended. Then, open a new browser tab and file an appeal.I hope this helps.Carlos Master Affiliate at: Magnetic Affliate - Affiliate Marketing Tips, Tools, & Training
How do I eliminate spam from my Twitter account?
This is a serious problem for Twitter and not often reported b/c of its amazing growth, though it's just been outed that less than 10% of those in the U.S. use Twitter. There is no real authorization for account creation and while there are mechanisms in place at Twitter (as well as employees) to squash this kind of stuff, the train may have already left the station. As a user, you can "block" accounts physically, but this is after the spammer has already attacked you in your mentions feed. You could protect your tweets, but that limits your tweet distribution, if you care about such a thing. For right now, the only solution to Twitter spam, outside of account protection, depends on vigilance from Twitter and the user. (On the iPhone and iPad apps, a user can set push notifications for alerts from tweet mentions by those the user is following, so in that sense, you could use Twitter exclusively in a mobile sense, but you may miss mentions from those that you don't follow.)
Why does Twitter allow bots?
Twitter has started cracking down on bots in the recent times and the service is very likely to stop permitting them completely. The main reason behind this is that some internet people have misused to to gain oversized influence and power. For example, the social platform reported itself that a large number of Russia linked bots attempted to interfere with the 2016 U.S Presidential Election.Some controversies have also sparked in the last few months, when Twitter has reportedly removed a large number of suspected bot accounts from their service.
Why am I following people on Twitter whom I never explicitly followed?
It's not a twitter app that's causing your account to randomly follow people. It's a virus or script or cookie or bot that got uploaded to your phone.With computers we normally have good antiviruses and cookies are normally limited to your browsing. With smartphones it's different. Google wanted to be able to track everything you do on your phone. So, google designed android to be very susceptible to spying. This type of technology used to be frowned upon but… Anyway, smart android developers that know the ins and outs of android know how to create cookies that can both track your activity and use your phone and applications to do things as though you were doing them.A good solution to your problem is to do the following:Clear all of your browsing data.Log out from all your Twitter apps and browsers. This way, Twitter will pick up if it's suspicious. When you log back in (after following these steps), click forgot password - and change password. Then enable “protect tweets”.Uninstall all of your Twitter apps on your phone.Do a memory cleanup by deleting all “unnecessary data”.Get an antivirus. Optional.Do a factory reset on your phone. Optional if it comes to the push.Stop browsing shady websites while you have your browser set to accept cookies. Use one browser only for trusted sites that you login to.Use a separate browser with JavaScript and cookies disabled. That way, you'll have a safer experience.Don't be tempted to read articles on how to get fake followers on Twitter and don't trust any of those sites because while you are reading those, they are adding malicious software to your smartphone.Don't sign up for anything like freebies or ebooks or courses. They already know your IP. All they need now is to put a name and other stats to that IP.Very important - try to get a VPS or VPN or a dynamic IP or change your IP. It's pretty easy to change your IP by switching your phone off for a few seconds or even resetting your mobile networks.I'm glad I could help. I had the same problem because I was on a bad site even though it looked like a legitimate honest site. They said they would only promote my Twitter handle on their page and in that way I would gain followers. But, no, it was all a trick. I might write a whole story on what happened another time.For now, I've learnt a lesson.
Can I get hacked only by clicking on a link without download anything?
Downloading is basically whenever you get outside information into your computer. When you visit any webpage, you are downloading an HTML/CSS/JS/whateverelse file that gets stored temporarily in your computer. Your browser (Chrome, Firefox, IE, or whatever) makes that HTML file easy to read. Most of the time, you click a button/link to download that HTML file, and it automatically opens up in the browser. There is no difference between a link to another page and a link to some arbitrary file, say, a Word Document. The only difference is that the web browser cannot open the Word Document, so it will only save the Word Document to your computer without opening it in the browser. (Many browsers add a feature that allows your computer to search for a program that can open such a file, or allows you to view the file in its folder.) The arbitrary file can also be a virus :D . Now, there are such links that don't link to anything. These are just dummy links that really don't download anything. Unless your link is a dummy link, which doesn't link to anything, you are already downloading a file. And a note about dummy links: just because you click a link and it appears to do nothing does not mean it's really doing nothing. For that, you would have to check the page source (most web browsers have an "inspect element" property), and the link would probably look something like:this is a random linkif it is a dummy link. Also, there'd be no functional javascript code in a