Is it safe to check Dropbox links?

[writer99025]

Some of my clients send their requirements (such as an article to be rewritten) on a Dropbox link. So I want to know from the cyber experts here if it is safe to check Dropbox links? Should I insist that they send a simple MS Word file?

[shubh2012]

Hi everyone, I created this topic to help sellers like myself avoid being hacked or worse. A buyer messaged about a Video :video_camera: Animation, it's normal to ask for a script once a buyer ask for a video, this buyer sent me a MS Word file with a Malware attached. Fortunately I have a good Anti-virus installed which immediately blocked the exploit before it went too far. I thought maybe this buyer didn't know, so I asked him to copy the content of the script and paste it ask plain text for …

Read this post. I am not sure if MS words are safe either.

[taverr]

I am no cyber expert, but you can safely check out the Dropbox links. Note that, this depends on the type of the file you are viewing. However in most cases you will get the documents in a text format so, you can view them safely. You can leave the virus scanning and stuffs like that on Dropbox, it automatically blocks malicious files with the help of Virus Total. 🙂

Just make sure to take precautions and not to open file with the extension .js .html .exe .batch .msi etc. Btw MS word files aren`t safe either, they allow running micros that can be connected with VB.Net programs easily. You can see an entire article dedicted here-
http://null-byte.wonderhowto.com/how-to/create-obfuscate-virus-inside-microsoft-word-document-0167780/
(Note to mods : You can delete the link if you think it can create troubles)

[deesajn]

Well, I never open MS Word files if I don’t have antivirus installed. It’s better tu use PDF files. Some .doc files contain small programs - macros, and macro programming language can also be used to write viruses.

[worldwideleads]

@writer99025 yes its safe to check dropbox links !!

[fonthaunt]

@writer99025 Whether DropBox or regular attachments, Word files used to be fairly safe, but there has been someone making rounds with fake Word files that are not safe. If you need to exchange a text document right now and be as safe as possible, it doesn’t matter if it’s through DropBox, inbox, or order - you might want to default to the safest possible file type. A file ending in .txt like you create through notepad is one of the safest ways.

The second safest would be .rtf which can be created in Wordpad or Word, Evernote, and other apps. .rtf is similar to a Word document but has less “code behind the file” so that makes it a bit safer.

The other thing you can do is right click any file you receive by any means and scan it with a good anti-virus program or malwarebytes software. If it comes up with a warning, then don’t open it and notify Customer Support. I am not the most technical person out there, but I spent years cleaning files off of student computers for universities, so I had to learn the safest options for text exchange.