all 3 comments

[–]Mnemonic[S] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

This shouldn't be a problem, except there are active campaigns from the government to spread awareness about phishing and the language used makes people assume the padlock (or Google saying "It's safe") means it's safe.

[If the site doesn't have to padlock, it's unsafe] means everyone with little knowledge assumes it's some magical thing that fixes all problems. Most campaigns don't even explain what the padlock or SSL mean.

[–]Tom_Bombadil 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Are there any convenient methods of verifying that a padlocked site is safe?

Also, the red pill up vote is sweet! -Respect!

[–]Mnemonic[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Except to check if the URL to see if it's really your bank/dropbox etc. Mostly phishing sites have very similar urls like dropbux.com or something, so if you're not paying attention it all looks legit.

The problem is that the padlock says the data you enter in the site is encrypted and safely transfered, but that is all. The site itself can be from anyone implemented to do anything with the data you enter.