Google Acquires VirusTotal

VirusTotal, the online scoring engine that compares the effectiveness of AntiVirus companies to analyze malware samples, was acquired by Google. I’ve used VirusTotal for years to analyze and upload samples to the Virus community for years.

From the VT blog here:

So we’re delighted that Google, a long-time partner, has acquired VirusTotal. This is great news for you, and bad news for malware generators, because:

The quality and power of our malware research tools will keep improving, most likely faster; and
Google’s infrastructure will ensure that our tools are always ready, right when you need them.

VirusTotal will continue to operate independently, maintaining our partnerships with other antivirus companies and security experts. This is an exciting step forward. Google has a long track record working to keep people safe online and we look forward to fighting the good fight together with them.

It is good to hear that the cash infusion and the independence will go a long way to keep VirusTotal the awesome online tool that it is. And I really hope that competing vendors, such as Intel and Microsoft will continue their partnerships with a Google subsidiary. Google has incorporated other security checks into their Chrome browser in the past with limited success, so it will be interesting to see how or if Google will leverage VirusTotal in Chrome. Will they automatically check all file hashes against the VT database prior to allowing a download?