09.29.05
Free Online Security Tools
Here are a couple free online services for virus discovery.
Trend Micro’s House Call will scan your PC for viruses through your web browser (IE only, installs an ActiveX utility). You can do a virus scan, a security scan (spyware & known security vulnerabilities), or combine the two for a “complete scan.” Testing it out it claims to have found 11 viruses and 1 spyware program on my machine that is regularly scanned with McAfee and Adaware.
Virus Total allows you to upload a file to their server for scanning. It will detect whether the file is a virus using several antivirus engines. You can use their web interface to upload the suspicious file, or email it them. It currently scans with the following antivirus engines: AntiVir, Avast, AVG, Avira, BitDefender, CAT-QuickHeal, ClamAV, DrWeb, eTrust-Iris, eTrust-Vet, Fortinet, F-Prot, Ikarus, Kaspersky, McAfee, NOD32v2, Norman, Panda, Sophos, Symantec, TheHacker, and VBA32.
I would warn that neither of these should be considered a replacement for regular virus and adware scanners.
Administrator said,
September 30, 2005 at 3:39 pm
Another possible use for Virus Total: scanning keygen/patches/cracks before running them on your computer.
Administrator said,
October 4, 2005 at 2:23 pm
Another web based virus scanner, this one from Computer Associates: http://www3.ca.com/securityadvisor/virusinfo/scan.aspx