Google has acquired free online malware scanner VirusTotal.
VirusTotal, a company based in Spain with only a handful of employees, offers a free online tool that scans suspicious files and URLs to detect viruses, worms, trojans, and other malware. The service uses 44 different antivirus products to check for malware including antivirus solution from Symanted, McAfee, Kaspersky Lab, AntiVir, Avast, AVG, BitDefender, ClamAV, Comodo, Dr.Web, F-Secure, Eset Nod32, Microsoft, Panda, Sophos, Trend Micro and others.
The company said in a blog post “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”.
Google did not disclosed the terms or the value of the deal.