GUIDELINE TO USE VIRUSTOTAL.COM TO SECURE YOUR ASSETS FOR FREE
Notes:
- Please remember that this one is a free online service, it should be used only as substitution of professional antivirus or internet security softwares for someone who don't have those softwares on their devices (lack of money, or anything else).
- You all should protect yourself better by spending money to own antivirus or internet security softwares on your devices.
- It is very cost-effective investment for your assets.
- If anyone has intention to translate the topic into your local language, please feel free to do this. I always want to spread helpful things out, especially from my original contributions. Please make sure that you make high quality translation, not shit one from Google Translator.
- Having and maintaining healthy habits and behaviours on Internet space are the best way to protect your devices and your assets.
Because antivirus softwares or internet security softwares only help us from well-known threats. @Pmalek mentioned about it there:Unfortunately Virustotal can only help you with already known threats and viruses by comparing the code to known threats. If you are unlucky and download a file that contains a fresh code with a virus then Virustotal will not be able to help you since it is the first time they see the code. The results can come back as clean while in fact you get infected and if you do a 2nd scan in a few days you see that some antivirus engines are already registering the file as a threat.
bob123's suggestion (click on quote link to see full post):
Using AV's (whether paid ones on your computer, or online services like virustotal) does only protect you against 1) known and very wide-spread malware and 2) malware created by script-kiddies or any other non-commercial cyber criminals.
Translations:
Objectives:(1) Using the online platform to detect viruses, trojans, worms, malwares before downloading and installing unknown sources;
(2) Securing your computers and all kind of assets, including digital assets, for free.
HistoryVirustotal.com is the online free service that has a long history.
The platform started in late of 2011, you can visit its
blogsite for more information.
Years from its beginning, the virustotal.com has been widely used by lots of people, mainly because it is totally free to use, and its power to detect potential threats.
It is more helpful for crypto enthusiasts who usually work online and have to download, install new wallets from new crypto projects.
Please remember that you all should check the security and potential threats inside unknown sources before doing anything else (downloading, installing, etc.)
Steps to use virustotal.com
(1) Visiting the siteThe site is available there:
https://www.virustotal.com/en/(2)Checking potential threatsThere are two strategies you can use to check potential threats
As you can see in the below attached image, you can check threats via files or URLs.
I will take GINcoin wallet and URL of its wallet as a case study here
2.1. Checking URLsFirst, make sure that you already choose the URL tab, before doing the next step
Second, copying and pasting the URLs that you want to check potential threats, like the below image
Lastly, clicking on the scan button, wait a little bit to get resutls.
Results:Detection ratio is 0/69.
No threat found, and the URL is safe.
2.2. Checking FILEsAfter downloading GINcoin wallet from GINcoin's website (official source from the project), before installing the wallet, let's check it with virustotal.com.
First, make sure that you choose the FILE tab before doing the second step.
Second, clicking on the choose button, then add the link to directory where you download and store it.
Lastly, clicking on the scan button, waiting for a while to get results
In the meantime, you will see the following interface
Results:When the scanning process finished, you will see results like the below image
For GINcoin wallet, detection ratio is 0/69, it means no threat (only for
well-known threats, thanks @Velkro) found, and the wallet is safely to install on your devices.
Both of the ways show that GINcoin wallet for windows is safe to download, and install.
It should be better if you do both steps in order:
1) Checking URLs.
If the results from URLs-checking are good, clean, no threat detected, you should continue with the second step.
If If the results from URLs-checking show threats detected, you should stop immediately. There is no reason to continue with the second step or downloading/ installing files from the URLs.
2) Checking files after the URLs-checking results shown no threat detected.
Of course, you can ignore the first step, and jump directly into the second step. It's personal approach, but I would like to do both two steps in order.
3) You should create your free account to have additional functions (for free).
4) You can also download files from Github (published by young age accounts and new born projects), and scan all files before actually think of using them to install on your devices (if they are safely). Please remember to be cautious with newborn projects, and Github published by young-aged accounts (and you don't have proofs of their past projects).
Additionally, there are tips to check Github account's reliabilty first (such as account age, activity, past reputation) before thinking of downloading sources from Github.
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.50883346
There are some other similar sites
I found some pages similar to this one :
ReferenceFor more details, guides, and discussion, please get them there
(1)
Virustotal.com's documentation(2)
Virustotal.com's community(3)
Just because It’s on GitHub. It doesn’t mean it’s safe>