jakeny
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If you're unsure of whether a website is safe to browse, what's the best/most accurate way to check to see if it has any malware? Thanks!!
Best/Accurate Way to Check Website for Malware?
- Thread starter jakeny
- Start date
This is a good website https://www.virustotal.com/, You can upload files or paste a URL in for a website..
Not a 'good' website - the website. Exceptional AV organisation with an active contribution to the security community. This is not to say that their result is 100% accurate, but it's as good as you're going to get.
jakeny
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So, I've been using Virus Total lately and it's been very helpful. Today, I was on Yahoo!'s front page and I clicked some link to a story that I thought would be linked to a separate Yahoo! page.
BIG MISTAKE. Instead, it linked me to some unknown (to me) site and I had not checked it yet. I quickly cut the URL and pasted it into Virus Total and it came back with 1/55. One virus checker listed it as a malware site.
I panicked and was so upset and didn't know what to do and literally manually shut down my laptop (by pressing the power button).
The problem is that I was on that page for probably 15 seconds or so prior to the shut down. I'm wondering if you guys think 15 seconds would be enough time for any malware to have infected my laptop?
...talk about annoying! 
BIG MISTAKE. Instead, it linked me to some unknown (to me) site and I had not checked it yet. I quickly cut the URL and pasted it into Virus Total and it came back with 1/55. One virus checker listed it as a malware site.
I panicked and was so upset and didn't know what to do and literally manually shut down my laptop (by pressing the power button).
The problem is that I was on that page for probably 15 seconds or so prior to the shut down. I'm wondering if you guys think 15 seconds would be enough time for any malware to have infected my laptop?
...talk about annoying! 
jmacavali
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OMFG....
(excuse the language) You have to be the most paranoid user I've ever seen. Did you turn your laptop back on? Did it blow up? Did smoke come out of the CD drive? Was there a ransom note posted to the screen? Did your virus scanner find anything? Did your malware scanner find anything?
It's my opinion that you'll be just fine dude....
Sorry for all the sarcasm. I'm not trying to make fun of you...just I think you need to relax a little bit. You're gonna put yourself into an early grave worrying so much.
(excuse the language) You have to be the most paranoid user I've ever seen. Did you turn your laptop back on? Did it blow up? Did smoke come out of the CD drive? Was there a ransom note posted to the screen? Did your virus scanner find anything? Did your malware scanner find anything?
It's my opinion that you'll be just fine dude....
Sorry for all the sarcasm. I'm not trying to make fun of you...just I think you need to relax a little bit. You're gonna put yourself into an early grave worrying so much.
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OMFG....
(excuse the language) You have to be the most paranoid user I've ever seen. Did you turn your laptop back on? Did it blow up? Did smoke come out of the CD drive? Was there a ransom note posted to the screen? Did your virus scanner find anything? Did your malware scanner find anything?
It's my opinion that you'll be just fine dude....
Sorry for all the sarcasm. I'm not trying to make fun of you...just I think you need to relax a little bit. You're gonna put yourself into an early grave worrying so much.
That my friend is funniest thing I have read all day
And you shouldn't worry about malware that much. I don't know what horror stories you have heard but as long as you do weekly virus checks a normal user will be fine so calm down the internet is not out to kill you
BIG MISTAKE. Instead, it linked me to some unknown (to me) site and I had not checked it yet. I quickly cut the URL and pasted it into Virus Total and it came back with 1/55. One virus checker listed it as a malware site.
I panicked and was so upset and didn't know what to do and literally manually shut down my laptop (by pressing the power button).
If I did that every time I got malware I'd never use a computer (anyone else try downloading from cnet recently?). I'd argue that most malware now is just there to annoy you based on what I've seen in the last month.
Simply put, even yahoo's home page can get a bad ad that will infect you. The only sure-fire ware to NEVER get an infection is to have the system disconnected from any kind of network and never plug a flash drive into it or put in an optical disk. This is obviously not all that convenient so it's best to just take a deep breath, get a good antivirus and anti-malware program and run them weekly. If anything pops up that makes you go "huh" then run it an extra time if needed.
So, I've been using Virus Total lately and it's been very helpful. Today, I was on Yahoo!'s front page and I clicked some link to a story that I thought would be linked to a separate Yahoo! page.
BIG MISTAKE. Instead, it linked me to some unknown (to me) site and I had not checked it yet. I quickly cut the URL and pasted it into Virus Total and it came back with 1/55. One virus checker listed it as a malware site.
I panicked and was so upset and didn't know what to do and literally manually shut down my laptop (by pressing the power button).
The problem is that I was on that page for probably 15 seconds or so prior to the shut down. I'm wondering if you guys think 15 seconds would be enough time for any malware to have infected my laptop?
Depending on the type of malware it was it will depend on how long it will take to infect your PC. I had to help a friend via Skype doing screen shares as he encountered some malware from files he downloaded, Got him to nab malware bytes and he ran that and it caught over 10 infected files, Restarted his PC and was fine. His problem was he couldn't access he registry or task manager and I thought virus straight away.
jakeny
Baseband Member
- Messages
- 89
- Location
- United States
OMFG....
(excuse the language) You have to be the most paranoid user I've ever seen. Did you turn your laptop back on? Did it blow up? Did smoke come out of the CD drive? Was there a ransom note posted to the screen? Did your virus scanner find anything? Did your malware scanner find anything?
It's my opinion that you'll be just fine dude....
Sorry for all the sarcasm. I'm not trying to make fun of you...just I think you need to relax a little bit. You're gonna put yourself into an early grave worrying so much.
I did sound kind of paranoid, huh? 
It's just my way of (online) speaking sometimes. I wouldn't say that my real life state of mind was necessarily that paranoid...although it was close.
It's just that I had a few computers die on me and my mom refused to pay anymore for me and said I'd have to get a job or use my own money next time. She was fed up with my computers breaking down. I just want to protect well what I have if you know what I mean. But, yeah, sorry for the possible overreaction! lol. I'm just being extra careful nowadays!!
The problem is that I was on that page for probably 15 seconds or so prior to the shut down. I'm wondering if you guys think 15 seconds would be enough time for any malware to have infected my laptop?
FYI 15 seconds is more than enough, you don't even need 1 second to get infected.
Whilst I would agree that powering the laptop off is unnecessary - I would agree for a different reason, any 'damage' has already been done so it's essentially pointless. Others have suggested that you are overly paranoid, I would agree that being too paranoid is better than being overly complacent - but at the same time you should behave rationally. i.e. if you suspect you have acquired an infection then run AV scans, malwarebytes etc. and you should be fine. Obviously as soon as you find out what malware you've been affected by, then research it on a clean pc and find out the correct remedial process before you go back to 'normal use' to ensure you've fully cleaned your system.
