False-positive initiative by VirusTotal
Posted: Thu Oct 12, 2017 10:35 pm
Hi dudes! 
As we know from discussion in other threads, the issue of false positives from anti-virus (AV) companies is a big problem for the software industry. Many end-users will use https://www.virustotal.com to test our apps, but the false positives will scare them away. Not good.
However, you may not be aware that VirusTotal has a "trusted source" initiative, whereby even if false positives occur, VirusTotal will list your app as being from a trusted source, so the end-user knows the product is actually safe. You can read about this new feature in their blog: http://blog.virustotal.com/2015/02/a-fi ... tives.html
Now, their blog says that the trusted source initiative is only open to "very large companies", which I am not. LOL! I'm basically a one-man band (unless you count my eldest son who does some coding with me as my student, so he's technically a secondary coder). Anyway, I figured I had nothing to lose by emailing VirusTotal and asking them how my company could be included as a trusted source, so that people scanning my apps would see it as safe.
To my shock, they replied as per the screenshot below, which was encouraging!
So I just wanted to make this new post about my experience, to help anyone else out who didn't know about it. (I didn't want this post to be lost in the middle of one of the other large AV threads). Seems that "very large companies" may not be the sole criteria after all. Great stuff, VirusTotal! 
As we know from discussion in other threads, the issue of false positives from anti-virus (AV) companies is a big problem for the software industry. Many end-users will use https://www.virustotal.com to test our apps, but the false positives will scare them away. Not good.
However, you may not be aware that VirusTotal has a "trusted source" initiative, whereby even if false positives occur, VirusTotal will list your app as being from a trusted source, so the end-user knows the product is actually safe. You can read about this new feature in their blog: http://blog.virustotal.com/2015/02/a-fi ... tives.html
Now, their blog says that the trusted source initiative is only open to "very large companies", which I am not. LOL! I'm basically a one-man band (unless you count my eldest son who does some coding with me as my student, so he's technically a secondary coder). Anyway, I figured I had nothing to lose by emailing VirusTotal and asking them how my company could be included as a trusted source, so that people scanning my apps would see it as safe.
To my shock, they replied as per the screenshot below, which was encouraging!
So I just wanted to make this new post about my experience, to help anyone else out who didn't know about it. (I didn't want this post to be lost in the middle of one of the other large AV threads). Seems that "very large companies" may not be the sole criteria after all. Great stuff, VirusTotal! 
