How to KNOW if a FILE or a WEBSITE has a VIRUS without an ANTIVIRUS?

You get a file you weren’t expecting, with a name as innocent as payroll.exe, and the same old doubt kicks in. Do I open it and pray, or is there a way to check first whether it’s carrying something nasty without installing anything? In this short video I show you the trick I use myself.

The tool is VirusTotal, at www.virustotal.com. All you have to do is drag the suspicious file onto the website and wait a few seconds. In no time you get the verdict from a whole bunch of antivirus engines at once. If any of them flags it in red, you know what to do, delete it. The same service works for websites. Instead of uploading a file, you go to the URL section and paste in the address you’re suspicious of, and it tells you whether that site has been flagged.

It’s a half-minute gesture that anyone can do, with no technical knowledge and without spending a euro. I’m sharing it because very often security isn’t about having the best program installed, but about pausing for a second before you click. I hope this helps you go about a little safer.