Summary
If you’re thinking of opening a suspicious file or you’re about to visit a questionable website, the best advice is to stop and don’t proceed. However, if you want to have it scanned, there’s a single place that can scan it with over 70 different security tools to give you the best shot at detecting if there’s any hidden malware.
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Transcript
As a general rule, you should avoid any suspicious sites or downloads. If you’re not sure whether or not something is safe, don’t proceed. However, if you have a site or a file and you want to check it for malware, there is a simple site that can run multiple checks for you.
For Personal Tech Media, this is Two Minute Tech. I’m Jim Herman.
When you have a site that you want to check for malware, go to VirusTotal. VirusTotal is used by many security professionals, but it’s so simple that you don’t have to be an expert to use it.
VirusTotal is very straightforward. Go to the website and select either the file or the URL tab. If you want VirusTotal to scan a webpage, paste the address of that page into the box on the URL tab. However, be aware that VirusTotal will only check the page you entered and not any other linked pages or pages elsewhere on that site. If you move to another page, you’ll have to have VirusTotal scan that page if you still have concerns.
If you want to check a file, press Choose File and select the file from your computer to upload for scanning. VirusTotal will scan the file and provide the results. Finally, there’s also a search tab, which is a more complex tool for auditing websites.
VirusTotal will check your file or site using over 70 different security tools. Your submission will be checked by multiple antivirus scanners, website blacklists, and more. Once the scan is complete, you’ll receive a summary describing if any products have flagged it as malicious and a list of each product that checked it.