VirusTotal Integration and Definition Sharing

[Amaroq_Starwind]

This is a pretty neat idea that I had a while back, and now I'm finally getting around to sharing it. 🦊

 

The premise of my proposition is that Malwarebytes would regularly retrieve data from VirusTotal when running a scan, and any detections during the scan would automatically be uploaded to VirusTotal.

Furthermore, it might also be possible for Malwarebytes to actually download and import definitions from other Anti-Virus programs, such as Windows Defender. And perhaps by extension, even upload its own findings to the servers used by the programs in question. Mutual protections for a safer internet.

 

What do you guys think?

[exile360]

Malwarebytes does participate in VirusTotal, so they do share samples with other vendors and have access to all the files uploaded there for analysis.  They also have a new cloud component in Malwarebytes which leverages data from VT and other sources, as well as Malwarebytes' own machine learning technology to further enhance Malwarebytes' detection and protection capabilities.

Definitions/signatures/heuristics/database syntax however cannot be shared between vendors because that information and technology is proprietary to each vendor and would compromise each vendor's intellectual property, business viability and potential effectiveness if such data were shared.

Edited November 19, 2018 by exile360

[Amaroq_Starwind]

Ah, I thought VirusTotal was a completely independent thing, my bad. Perhaps if the VirusTotal integration were more apparent, like a VirusTotal Results tab on the GUI for detected items, it'd lead to fewer redundant suggestions like I just made >.<