Scanning with VirusTotal
This will walk through how to scan a file and website with VirusTotal, which is a website that scans the file or link to determine the potential harm or risk that that particular item might have.
If you are ever unsure about an email attachment or website link, you can use VirusTotal to scan the file/link.
To scan a file,
1. Right click on the file you wish to scan, and select the option to Save As.
2. Then select that you would like the file to go to your Downloads. If you need to rename the file to make it easier to find, you can do that now as well.
3. Once the file is saved, navigate to VirusTotal.com, and under the option for File, select Choose file.
4. Navigate back to your Downloads and select the file you just saved and press Open.
5. Once you do that, confirm the upload on the website.
6. All that is left to do is to wait on the scanner to complete. If it is not flagged as malicious, you can feel confident in opening the file without worrying about there being any issues.
To scan a website,
1. Right click on the link you are suspicious of and select the option to Copy Hyperlink.
2. Then navigate to VirusTotal.com and go to the option for URL.
3. Once there, in the text box, right click and Paste the hyperlink.
4. After it is entered, you can then press the magnifying glass on the right hand side and it should start to scan the site.
5. Wait for the scanner to complete, and if the website is not flagged as malicious, you can then open the link without worrying about the link being spam.
