Google has launched a new security tool for OS X machines called the VirusTotal Uploader for users to upload and scan files and folders for malicious malware.
Google, the biggest internet search company, is continuing its battle against viruses, malware, spyware and more. The web giant announced a new tool for Mac computers running OS X 10.8 and 10.9 that can scan uploaded files and folders for malware with more than 50 antivirus solutions.
The company announced VirusTotal Uploader, a tool for OS X computers that can scan files for viruses in the simplest way and give efficient results. The online scanning method has long been available on Windows OS and the Mac OS X version draws similarities from its Windows counterpart.
"Today we are proud to announce a new VirusTotal Uploader for OS X. It is available for download on our Desktop Applications page," the VirusTotal's technical account manager, Karl Hiramoto, said in an official blog post, Monday. "Internally it uses our public API to schedule uploads of files, with the exact same limitations that any public API user would experience."
"Hopefully this will lead to VirusTotal receiving more Mac applications, 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."
The tool is simple to use, as it only requires users to drag and drop a file, folder or a Mac application to the VirusTotal Uploader window to initiate a scan. The site's use of public API limits the tool to certain operations such as scanning four queries in a minute, which is unlikely in a standard antivirus application.
Google acquired the startup in September 2012 and like most of its other acquisition, the web giant kept the operations of VirusTotal completely independent, The Next Web reports.
VirusTotal Uploader, which weighs 8.52 MB, can be downloaded from the company's Desktop Applications page. The detailed instructions will walk you through the installation of the security tool.
