What’s going on guys — in this video I’m breaking down one of the most common ways people (and organizations) get popped: opening malicious links and files like it’s no big deal. Day-to-day, it’s the same story: you get an email, you click a link, damage is done… or you open a “friendly” Word doc and suddenly your machine is compromised and anything on that network can start getting infiltrated. I walk through what’s actually happening behind the scenes, including the difference between a normal HTTPS request versus hitting a malicious command-and-control (C2) server that sends back code and starts calling home. Then I show you a practical way to mitigate this without making your life miserable: SquareX. What I like is it’s a browser extension that lets you spin up a disposable, sandboxed browser in a couple clicks (even choosing different countries), so you can test sketchy links without exposing your PC or network. I also demo the disposable file viewer so you can open files inside a sandbox and see what’s in them without letting arbitrary code write to your device. If you’re trying to break into cybersecurity (or you’re already in), these are the kinds of “daily routine” habits and tools that help you stay secure — and they’re great talking points with hiring managers too.