Protect yourself from infected links to PDF Files

Clicking on links to PDF files in web search results or emails can infect your computer. You can take a number of steps to protect yourself.

PDF files can contain malware that steals files, launches ransomware, and remotely controls computers. You can be tricked into opening a bad PDF by phishing emails (where email senders impersonate someone or some company you trust).

Poisoned search results conceal a similar danger. Scammers are flooding the internet with fake websites offering free but infected downloadable PDF legal forms, pushing legitimate websites for downloadable forms further down in search results.

How Can You Protect Yourself?

A key answer is updates, updates, updates.

Personally, I find software updates annoying. They interrupt, distract, and delay. Yet, they are necessary, even critical.

Cybercriminals are finding and exploiting software flaws every day. They create new viruses as often as every 15 minutes. This allows them to bypass many antivirus programs, such as the free version of Microsoft Defender, which is updated only a few times per day.

Your antivirus program must be regularly updated. Make sure yours is set to automatically update. I recommend using Webroot. It updates its cloud-based virus database continuously.

Updating your other applications is also vital. Your web browsers—Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Firefox, Safari—really need their updates. Otherwise, their emerging vulnerabilities can be used against you. Browsers have their own built-in PDF viewers. If they are not up-to-date, malicious JavaScript can be run from infected web pages that take advantage of web browsers’ flaws.

The list of important cybersecurity protections includes many other items, but the timely updating of software ranks right up near the top of the list.