We all encounter unwanted advertisements and pop-ups every day when using desktops. It is the same on android devices such as smartphones and tablets. They are so annoying and we all want to eliminate them. Even if most desktops prevent pop-ups and advertisements we still have some problems on our android devices.
The good news is there are several ways to block pop-ups and ads on android devices. Here, we need to state that pop-ups and advertisements can be dangerous. They affect the phone’s performance and slow down phone operations. These drawbacks may be a sign of breaching and you can be under attack.
Malware and phishing attacks are the main threats to digital security. Cybercriminals use these techniques to leak onto devices and capture private data from them. You should be aware that in malicious websites, advertisement pop-ups are common. So when you visit a website and recognize that the number of pop-ups is quite much, should be suspicious.
Nowadays, cybercriminals can easily deceive users by sending them phishing e-mails and by redirecting them to replica websites. It is not difficult for an average user to fall victim to these tricks. Malicious websites are great environments for cybercriminals to deceive people and reach their goals. To protect yourself from malicious websites, you need a fundamental knowledge of recognizing if the website is malicious or not.
How to Recognize a Malicious Website?
Sometimes defining a website as malicious can be hard. Because some of the websites seem reliable and you can not understand the difference between the fake ones. But there are some clues that you can find the answer to what is a malicious website.
- You can check the domain of the website. Sometimes the domain looks like the original but has extra words number such as Netflix1 instead of Netflix. When you notice something is wrong with the domain you can leave the website before getting hurt.
- Control whether the website has an SSL certificate or not. Although it seems technical, you can easily infer from the URLs. If you see only HTTP in URLs, we can say that this website has no SSL certificate. On the other hand, S in the HTTPS states that the website has an SSL certificate.
- Some malicious websites reveal themselves through their poor grammar and misspelling of words. There will be repeated sentences and words in malicious fake websites. As an online security literate, you may doubt that something is wrong with this website and you need to be careful.
- Another sign of a malicious website is a fake security warning. When you visit a website and you realize security warning pop-ups, it is most likely that the website is fake and if you click fake warning, malware can capture your device.
Relation Between Pop-ups and Malicious Websites
Advertisement pop-ups are the prior signs of malicious websites. If you come on with a website that is full of pop-ups such as a minefield on the screen, you can be sure that it is a malicious website and there may be phishing links or direct malware waiting for you.
Phishing
Sometimes website pop-ups force users to enter their identification information so they track them and capture their private data. It is a quite common tactic for cybercriminals to deceive people via phishing links. The majority of phishing links come from e-mails but there are some on the websites and users can instantly fall victim to these links.
Phishing attacks mainly focus on stealing credentials of credit cards and other financial information. These kinds of data can be considered high-valued and are an amazing target for cybercriminals. Since financial winnings are indispensable for cybercriminals, we can expect them to be more eager to obtain financial credentials.
Malware
Another way to obtain data via malicious websites is to use malware. Cybercriminals use two techniques to infect users’ devices. First, they arrange links and force people to click them. When the user clicks the place that is demonstrated, the malware started to download to the device and starts infecting the device.
Malware can be concealed in exe.files. You must be careful especially for exe.files because it is really common for them to be threatful and cause data leakage.
The second way to affect devices with malware is quite effective. In this scenario, there is no need for the user to click or download something. When they enter the website, the malware starts to do its business and threat device security. It is more dangerous because users can not be aware of the malware. Some people call this attack a drive-by download.
How to Block Pop-ups on Your Android Device?
On the majority of Android devices, google chrome is the default browser. So in this article, we will explain how to block pop-ups on chrome so you can access a reliable and comfortable no-pop-up website experience. To provide this, Chrome uses some tools and you can activate them with ease.
All you need to do is enter your Chrome settings by clicking three dots on your browser. Scroll the screen down until you find the site settings. When you find pop-ups and redirects, toggle the slider to the left. If it is left by default, leave it like that. After being sure that the toggle is on the left, you can turn back to the previous page and make the same steps for Ads.
Although this setting can not prevent all pop-ups and advertisements, you can get rid of the majority of them. So you can enjoy a reliable and protective website visitor experience. To explore more blocking methods you can make quick research on the web but be sure that you are informed correctly.
In Conclusion
Blocking pop-ups on android devices is a requirement for every user so you can research further methods to block pop-ups from your android device. Always remember that pop-up advertisements are the indicators of malicious websites and these websites can cause you great harm by using phishing attacks and malware. So the best thing that you can do is be aware of malicious website indicators and learn how to protect yourself from them.
