Shortened Links May Lead You to Malicious Sites - How to Unshorten a Link Before You Click
You are about to click on a shortened Twitter link but do you know where this shortened link will take you? URL shortening services such as tinyurl have been available for a number of years. Such services originally provided an easy way to shorten long links that could break within an e-mail message or make long URLs much easier to remember. With the introduction of microblogging services, such as Twitter, where 140 character message limits prevail, shortened URLs became a necessity. This 140 character message limit has in turn spawned numerous new URL shortening services, such as bit.ly, cli.gs, or ow.ly. However, clicking on any shortened URL can pose significant security and/or privacy concerns. Not knowing where a shortened link goes may land you at a malicious Web site. To reduce your odds of being exposed to such security and privacy risks, before clicking on any shortened URL first reveal the underlying full (unshortened) URL. One such free unshortening service is Untidy (http://unhid.co.cc). Unhid claims to be able to "... preview short URLs from every shortening service..." which may prove to be a significant advantage over competitor http://untiny.me (I have been able to reveal shortened URLs using unhid.co.cc that untidy.me currently could not unshorten). Untidy provides two easy options. You can copy the shortened URL and paste it into the box at http://unhid.co.cc and click "Unhide" to reveal the full URL (see screen capture). Unhid also offers a more convenient bookmarklet option (for example, if you are using Mozilla's Firefox browser, just drag and drop the bookmarklet, found on Unhid's homepage, to your Bookmarks Toolbar). When you want to unshorten a URL, first click on the Unhid bookmarklet to activate it. (as shown in the screen capture above, a pop-up will state that the bookmarklet has been activated and that the bookmarklet can be de-activated by refreshing the page). Next, click on any shortened URL. As shown in the screen capture, a pop-up message will ask you if you want to preview the shorteneed link in a new window at http://unhid.co.cc (OK) or view the shortened link (Cancel). Press "OK" to preview the shortened link at http://unhid.co.cc (see the screen capture). At this point, you can decide whether or not you want to click on the unshortned URL. Although you now have the immediate unshortened URL, this revealed link could still be re-directed to another Web site, which could be malicious. At this point, if you are still suspicious about the URL, either do not click on the link or run your browser within sandboxie ( http://www.sandboxie.com) before clicking on the link. This assumes that you are taking other preventive measures, such as keeping your system and applications updated as well as installing the latest anti-virus definitions. For further information about how a non profit organization can develop a productive virtual volunteering program through the use of appropriate technology, please visit this Online Volunteering Resource.
