Google Free Malware Detection Tool For Mac Uses 50 Different Antivirus Engines

VirusTotal Mac OSX Uploader, Google's new release, features free antivirus software for Mac that will scan suspicious files and folders for possible malware or viruses.

Recently, Google unveiled the VirusTotal Uploader for OS X enabling Mac users to scan suspicious folders. With this software, Mac OSX users can now scan and check suspicious files such as email attachments and other potential downloads for malware detection. The tool gathers data from 50 different antivirus engines to search for malicious files or folders before users can open or download them.

VirusTotal Uploader has been available for Windows for quite some time. Prior to the release of the antivirus tool for Mac, the new software reached a high popularity among Windows PC users as a trusted approach to send suspicious files for scanning via online through VirusTotal.

Google developed VirusTotal in September 2012. The company still work independently at this time. Also, Google wishes that its latest application for Mac will be acceptable in more Mac applications, giving the company a chance in "diving deeper into an increasingly targeted OS by attackers and allowing antivirus companies and researchers making use of VirusTotal's backend to build stronger defenses against these threats."

This new Google tool, VirusTotal, can scan single files of Mac, Mac applications or even the other files or folder. Users simply need to drag and drop the items in question onto the VirusTotal Mac OS X Uploader's interface or they can just scan by right clicking on the file or folder and use the "open with" menu.

VirusTotal should not be treated as comprehensive anti-malware software. It does serve as a valuable file-scanning tool. It also shares malicious files identified with antivirus vendors, which will also be useful for all the users making the software safer. Google's VirusTotal's is available for Mac users for free.