You get a free scan, they get a free sample to scrutinize. Keep in mind that anything you send to VirusTotal will be shared with dozens of cybersecurity companies and researchers. It may take a little while, but you should eventually get a report back for the attached file. If you receive an attachment that you don’t even want to download without scanning, you can just forward that email directly to Be sure to edit the subject to include the word “SCAN”. You can copy that link and paste it in their tool, and it will analyze the website for potential threats. Have you ever really needed to click on a web link, but were afraid that it might be luring you to a malicious website? VirusTotal can help you there, too. VirusTotal has other useful features, too. (It might even be a win-win-win, but I’ll get to that in a bit.) But Wait, There’s More It also gives security researches samples of known and even unknown malware variants to study. Uploading potentially malware-ridden files allows antivirus tool makers to vet and improve their products. Sound too good to be true? Well, it’s not a purely altruistic endeavor. Antivirus makers and security researchers have created a handy online scanning tool called VirusTotal that allows anyone to upload a single file to be scanned by dozens of antivirus tools all at once. So what if you get that file attachment and you want to be extra sure that it’s safe to open? Where can you go to get a second opinion? As it turns out, you can actually get about 70 second opinions – and all for free. But even the best AV tools can’t be 100% perfect. I’ve made my opinion pretty clear on what I feel are the pros and cons of modern antivirus software.
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