Virus Total: Online Security Tool by Google

Virtual Security has been a very crucial topic in recent years. Every now and then we hear news about different hacks and leaks making the headlines, and new vulnerabilities are discovered every day to exploit our privacy via different means. We can’t even imagine how many ways there are to make us vulnerable digitally, malware attacks being the number one approach. Security might seem like an illusion nowadays but there are few ways and tools that can still provide security to some extent. This is where Virus Total comes in as a promising tool.

Virus Total is a security website subsidiary of Google, where you can scan files (upto 128MB), links and even BIOS or UEFI firmware. It is a very effective tool since it aggregates 55 antivirus programs and 61 online security scan engines.

Virus Total has a very simple UI, more like a google search page which is extremely easy to use. You can directly upload files and paste link on the search bar and it’ll show you if the file or link has any malwares, viruses, worms, Trojans and other malicious contents that might make you vulnerable.

BIOS malware has been a controversial topic ever since Snowden blown the whistle on NSA for making BIOS malware for spying. BIOS is the bridge between software and hardware if your BIOS is infected there is a very low chance that you’ll ever be secure, even if you format your whole system the malware won’t be neutralized since it resides on the chip of the motherboard. Considering this Virus Total has dedicated tools to scan your BIOS or UEFI for malware. Furthermore, you can dump your BIOS and send it to Virus Total for extensive study.

In today’s world “Privacy-like eating and breathing-is one of the life’s basic requirement.” Virus Total can be one of many great tools to keep yourself safe online and offline by scanning the URL first before entering any unknown sites or by scanning some files that could be malicious and even letting it scan your BIOS firmware.