Today I decided to try and use Twitter. Not so everyone can see each and every step I make, but rather to have a more real-time interaction with the digital world. I already have a Twitter account but I needed to download a Twitter client for my PC. I located Twitteroo and decided to download it and give it a try. After the download I immediately sent it over to Virus Total to have a quick scan of the contents. In case you haven’t come across Virus Total they are a free service that performs a scan for malicious code. It does this by running the file over 36 different scanning products.
There is an optional download that allows you to insert a link into your “Send To” context menu. So right after downloading a file I can right click on it, select Send To and select VirusTotal. After receiving a clean report I feel a little better about running a file from the Internet. Did I mention it is free?
That’s when I started to wonder if anyone else does the same. Do you ever scan files that you have downloading from the Internet? Is this overkill?
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Mon, Oct 27, 2008
Security, Technology