Check if a link or website is contaminated with viruses or malware

As a rule, it is known that we should never open website links inserted into emails from unknown senders. They are often the gateway to virus e malwares on your computer.

Even so, there are certain viruses that invade computers, email accounts and even social network profiles, causing copies of the “malicious link” are automatically sent to all contacts saved in the user's account. This makes it difficult to define whether a link sent by a friend or relative should also be avoided.

For these situations, there are online tools that are willing to evaluate certain links, confirming whether or not they can be clicked. Unlike the programs anti virus traditional, they make the user's life easier by dispensing with the installation on the computer or smartphone.

However, when testing them, we noticed that most are not successful in what they promise. As an example, we use a malicious link that has been shared by users of Twitter, and was recognized as unsafe by the anti-virus program Avast 8 (available for Windows PCs). See the results below:

1. Norton Safe Search

To use it, copy the suspicious link from the email or social network and access safeweb.norton.com. Then paste it in the indicated field and click on the “magnifying glass” icon (or press the “Enter” key). O Norton Safe Web will then display all the information provided by the users and also their possible comments on the link.

2. AVG ThreatLabs

To use it, copy the suspicious link from the email or social network and access www.avgthreatlabs.com. Then paste it in the indicated field and press the “Enter” key.

3. McAfee SiteAdvisor

To use it, copy the suspicious link from the email or social network and access www.siteadvisor.com. Then paste it in the indicated field and press the “Enter” key.

4. Online Link Scan

This tool has the advantage of searching several others for information about malicious links, making the search more complete. To use it, copy the suspicious link from the email or social network and access onlinelinkscan.com. Then paste it in the indicated field and press the “Enter” key.

5. Google Safe Browsing

To use the tool Google, a little more work is needed. However, the result is worth it: complete the tool link, typing the suspicious link at the end, as we did with the link test in showmetech (https://google.com/safebrowsing/diagnostic?site=showmetech.com.br). Then paste it into the address bar of any internet browser and press the “Enter” key.

6. Juices Site Check

To use the tool Juices Site Check, just visit the link https://sitecheck.sucuri.net, and enter the address of the suspicious link or website. The tool then takes care of doing a full link check.

SMT recommendation:

After our tests, the tools Google Safe Browsing e Juices Site Check were considered the most efficient in detecting viruses and malware coming from suspicious links. Therefore, they are the most recommended by the showmetech.