Google has bought startup VirusTotal, picking up a fledgling but widely used cybersecurity player for an unknown amount in a move that could beef up protection for its internet services.
VirusTotal is a free online service for scanning files and URLs to spot viruses, worms, trojans and other malicious content detected by antivirus engines and website scanners.
[quote]Elaborating on the recent turn of events, VirusTotal wrote in its blog post, “Our goal is simple: to help keep you safe on the web. And we’ve worked hard to ensure that the services we offer continually improve. But as a small, resource-constrained company, that can sometimes be challenging.”[/quote]
VirusTotal already offered browser extensions for Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer to integrate malware scanning into users’ browsers. Although the company said that it will continue to operate as an independent service, it’s safe to assume its tools will be integrated into the scanning data that Google already provides to Chrome, Firefox and Safari to show users 8 million warnings a day when they visit malware-infected websites.
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