The Virustotal online virus scanning service is one of the services that I use on a regular basis. Whenever I find a great looking software in a “not so great” location, I use the service to check the software out before I execute it on my system. This is for instance the case when software [...]

Categories: Online Services, Security

We all know that there is not a single antivirus software on the market, either free or commercial, that detects 100% of malicious software. Some users help themselves by adding additional layers of protection to their system. This can be virtualization or sandboxing, or the installation of another security application. Others use online services such [...]

Categories: Security, Software, Windows

There is always risk involved when you execute software on your local system. You can reduce that risk by updating your operating system regularly, running up to date security software or executing suspicious files in a sandboxed or virtual environment. When you review as much software as I do, you are grateful for every additional [...]

Categories: Online Services, Security, Software, Windows

The free Windows software TCPeye is basically a netstat frontend with several extra features that make it more than a viable alternative. Windows users who want to know about all the connections that are currently open on their machine can use the netstat -a command on the command line to find out about them. TCPEye [...]

Categories: Software, Windows

Sometimes you may not be sure if a local file is safe to execute even with an up to date antivirus software installed. It can then be reassuring to scan the file with online malware scanners, preferably a service that utilizes multiple antivirus engines, to determine if a file is malicious in nature or not. [...]

Categories: Software, Windows

When in doubt verify. That’s one of the maxims that I use daily to avoid running into troubles. That’s especially true for files and programs that I want to test and run on my system. Sometimes they come from untrustworthy sources, and even though I have antivirus installed I prefer to double-check those files to [...]

Categories: Security, The Web

Virustotal is a great online service that provides access to more than 30 antivirus engines that can scan a file uploaded by the user. This gives the user a much deeper understanding if a file is malicious or not. Hitman Pro is a similar application with the difference that it is a local software program [...]

Categories: Software, Windows