Google releases TotalVirus malware tool for OS X


TotalVirus is a Google company that helps identify and track malware. The software is free an its APIs are open for other developers to implement. It's been popular on Windows and now a Mac version is available.

The software will:

- Drag and drop a file to the VirusTotal Uploader in order to scan it with over 50 antivirus solutions.
- Drag and drop a folder to the VirusTotal Uploader and schedule the analysis of its content.
- Drag and drop a Mac application to the VirusTotal Uploader.
- Allow you to "Open With" in finder the VirusTotal Uploader to scan a file.


The scheduling feature is interesting. I could see some basic functionality to automatically scan your Applications folder, for example, although there's no guarantee malware will end up there. Perhaps too your downloads folder. If you have it check daily and get in the habit of keeping stuff around, that could alert you of a problem. Personally I use Hazel to prune out my download folder weekly, so that could work for me.

Beyond that it seems to rely on the user to be proactive. I'm not sure the Mac users feel the urgency to manually check all incoming files, but still it's good to have the tool.