At s͛Card, we prioritise ensuring the safety and integrity of the information shared within our platform. When a URL is marked as malicious, our advanced scanning technology has identified it as potentially harmful. This determination is based on several factors, including whether the URL has a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate and if it redirects to unsafe destinations.
SSL certificates are crucial for safeguarding online transactions and personal information, acting as a digital passport for secure communications. If a URL lacks SSL certification or leads users to dubious sites, it may be flagged by Google's Safe Browsing API, a reliable tool we utilise to assess website safety.
To ensure your website appears safe on your s͛Card profile, secure it with SSL and use reliable web services. Avoid using short links, as they can hide the actual URL. While they help streamline long URLs, they can obscure the destination, potentially lowering user engagement and trust. Short links are often used maliciously to redirect users to phishing sites or to download malware.
Using short links can damage trust in your profile and may label you as untrustworthy. Since acquiring a domain and creating an essential website are cost-effective from a business standpoint, we strongly advise against using short links to avoid potential financial and credential losses.
Understanding SSL:
Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificates, or digital certificates, create an encrypted link between a web server and a browser. This encryption ensures that all data passed between the web server and browsers remain private and integral.
Understanding Shortlinks:
Shortlinks simplify sharing by turning long URLs into more manageable versions. However, their convenience is sometimes exploited for malicious activities, including phishing and malware distribution. Exercise caution with shortened URLs, and consider verifying their authenticity to avoid security risks.
Understanding Google's Web Risk
Web Risk is a Google Cloud service that lets client applications check URLs against Google's constantly updated lists of unsafe web resources. Unsafe web resources include social engineering sites—such as phishing and deceptive sites—and sites that host malware or unwanted software. With Web Risk, you can quickly identify known bad sites, warn users before they click infected links, and prevent users from posting links to known infected pages from your site. Web Risk includes data on over a million unsafe URLs and stays up to date by examining billions of URLs daily.
Understanding Google's Safe Browsing
Safe Browsing is a Google service that lets client applications check URLs against Google's constantly updated lists of unsafe web resources. Examples of unsafe web resources are social engineering sites (phishing and deceptive sites) and sites that host malware or unwanted software.
As long as a website link is displayed on your s͛Card Profile or the business contact information is stored in your s͛Card contact list—whether entered manually or scanned via AI Assist—we will check the safety of the domains our users attempt to visit. Given the many surprises the internet can hold, we view this as critical to maintaining a secure business ecosystem of s͛Card.
