Google acquires free security service VirusTotal

Google is beefing up its security solutions portfolio with the newly-announced acquisition of VirusTotal.

VirusTotal provides a free security service that analyzes suspicious files and URLs, and then facilitates the quick detection of viruses, worms, trojans, and all kinds of malware.

Users only have to head to the online tool, select the file from their desktops, and the system is supposed to take care of the rest. The maximum file size currently supported by the service is 32MB.

In a blog post on Friday, VirusTotal reps asserted that the merger is good news for consumers and bad news for malware generators for the following two reasons:

The quality and power of our malware research tools will keep improving, most likely faster; and Google’s infrastructure will ensure that our tools are always ready, right when you need them.

VirusTotal will continue to operate independently and maintain existing partnerships with other antivirus companies and security experts.

Neither Google nor VirusTotal have revealed any further plans about how this might affect Google services, but it is possible that VirusTotal's solutions could be integrated throughout Google Apps to protect users against malicious files shared through Gmail and other programs.

Financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed.