{"id":15736,"date":"2018-10-21T16:10:20","date_gmt":"2018-10-21T20:10:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/?p=15736"},"modified":"2018-10-21T16:10:47","modified_gmt":"2018-10-21T20:10:47","slug":"15736-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/15736-2\/","title":{"rendered":"VirusTotal: A Cloudeight Site Pick"},"content":{"rendered":"

VirusTotal<\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n

Often we’ll get email from someone asking us if a file\/program is safe.\u00a0 And sometimes we’ll feature a freeware pick and we’ll have people tell us that their antivirus program found a “virus” or something else wrong with it. And other times, we’ll recommend something that will make Windows’ crazy “SmartScreen” go wild with all kinds of warnings.<\/span><\/p>\n

We use Emsisoft on all our computers, so we never know when someone using Avast, AVG, McAfee, TrendMicro, Norton or another antivirus will write us saying their security software found a problem with a file or program we recommended.<\/span><\/p>\n

We’ve had issues with Windows SmartScreen many times – but we’ve learned that SmartScreen isn’t always smart. So, normally when we find a good program that ticks off SmartScreen – we’ll go ahead and recommend the program anyway\u00a0 after we’ve double checked it. But we’ll make a note that SmartScreen detected it but the file is safe.\u00a0Here’s a an article we wrote<\/a><\/span>\u00a0about a program that SmartScreen said was malicious, but was not.<\/span><\/p>\n

So, how do we know the file is safe, even if SmartScreen – or some antivirus says it isn’t? We use VirusTotal to scan the file with 70 different scanners to determine if a file is safe, whenever we have the slightest doubt. The last thing we’d ever want to do is not be certain before we recommend something to you.<\/span><\/p>\n

Then today, when looking at some fun and crazy sites to feature, I downloaded something that set off SmartScreen. I uploaded it to VirusTotal and found the file was safe. Then it dawned on me… why not make VirusTotal a Cloudeight Site Pick? It sure deserves to be.<\/span><\/p>\n

It’s easy to use. It’s free to use. And anyone can use it. You can upload a file to VirusTotal. You can upload a file from our computer to VirusTotal, use a URL (link) to the download, or you can use the search on VirusTotal to check out a file you’re considering downloading.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Cloudeight<\/span>
\nAbove: VirusTotal is easy to use. You can upload a file from your computer, paste a link to the file, or search for the filename.<\/span>
\n\"Cloudeight<\/span>
\nAbove: VirusTotal scanned this file with 70 different scanners (including Emsisoft). None of the scanners found any problem with this file.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Cloudeight<\/span><\/p>\n

Above: You may, on occasion, see where one or two ‘engines’ (scanners) detected a file you submitted for examination. In the screen shot directly above you can see the file was scanned by 68 scanners and only one found a problem (a heuristic “malware”). When you see this kind of result, you know that the scanner that found a problem is reporting a false positive.<\/span><\/p>\n

So, now it’s time to bring in VirusTotal’s people and have them tell you a bit more about VirusTotal before we send you on your way:<\/span><\/p>\n

“…VirusTotal inspects items with over 70 antivirus scanners and URL\/domain blacklisting services, in addition to a myriad of tools to extract signals from the studied content. Any user can select a file from their computer using their browser and send it to VirusTotal. VirusTotal offers a number of file submission methods, including the primary public web interface, desktop uploaders, browser extensions and a programmatic API. The web interface has the highest scanning priority among the publicly available submission methods. Submissions may be scripted in any programming language using the HTTP-based public API.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

As with files, URLs can be submitted via several different means including the VirusTotal webpage, browser extensions and the API.<\/span><\/p>\n

Upon submitting a file or URL basic results are shared with the submitter, and also between the examining partners, who use results to improve their own systems. As a result, by submitting files, URLs, domains, etc. to VirusTotal you are contributing to raise the global IT security level.<\/span><\/p>\n

This core analysis is also the basis for several other features, including the VirusTotal Community: a network that allows users to comment on files and URLs and share notes with each other. VirusTotal can be useful in detecting malicious content and also in identifying false positives — normal and harmless items detected as malicious by one or more scanners.<\/span><\/p>\n

Free and unbiased<\/span><\/p>\n

VirusTotal is free to end users for non-commercial use in accordance with our Terms of Service. Though we work with engines belonging to many different organizations, VirusTotal does not distribute or promote any of those third-party engines. We simply act as an aggregator of information. This allows us to offer an objective and unbiased service to our users…”<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Now it’s time for you to check out and\/or use VirusTotal by visiting their Website here<\/a>.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

And here’s tip from good ol’ Darcy and TC: It would be a great idea to bookmark\u00a0VirusTotal<\/a><\/span>\u00a0 – a day will come when you’ll want to use it.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

VirusTotal Often we’ll get email from someone asking us if a file\/program is safe.\u00a0 And sometimes we’ll feature a freeware pick and we’ll have people tell us that their antivirus program found a “virus” or something else wrong with it. And other times, we’ll recommend something that will make Windows’ crazy “SmartScreen” go wild with all kinds of\u2026 Read More »<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13688,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[151,1433,1656],"tags":[1048,2738,14,2737],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15736"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15736"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15736\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15738,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15736\/revisions\/15738"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}