Mac users, have you downloaded a somewhat suspicious looking file that you’re unsure if it might contain malware? While there are plenty of anti-virus softwares available for OS X, the good news is that the popular Windows-based malware scanner, VirusTotal Uploader, has been officially ported onto OS X, thus allowing Mac users to scan files on their computers for potential malware and whatnot.
For those unfamiliar with the software, VirusTotal has been around on Windows for quite a while now. Basically what it does is that it allows users to submit files on their computers to the software’s online scanning tool, who will then check the latest security signatures from multiple sources in order to best determine if the file you upload could contain malware.
The company was acquired by Google back in 2012 and it looks like Google has finally decided to bring it onto OS X. According to a blog post on the software’s website, “Hopefully this will lead to VirusTotal receiving more Mac applications, diving deeper into an increasingly targeted OS by attackers and allowing antivirus companies and researchers making use of VirusTotal’s backend to build stronger defenses against these threats.”
The software has been tested for OS X 10.8 and 10.9 so we’re not sure if it will play nicely with older OS X builds, and whether or not users might run into any issues with older versions of OS X. VirusTotal Uploader is also free for download, so if this is your first time hearing about it, head on over to its website for more details.