Misuse of Alphabet’s virus scanner is exposing sensitive files

Ontario said it discovered thousands of unprotected files from companies in the pharmaceutical, industrial, automotive and food industries as part of a project to research the malware logged by VirusTotal, which is owned by Alphabet cybersecurity subsidiary Chronicle. — Bloomberg

Companies are misusing Alphabet Inc’s virus scanner and similar products, and are unwittingly leaking data such as factory blueprints to intellectual property online, Israeli cybersecurity company Otorio Ltd said.

The firm said it discovered thousands of unprotected files from companies in the pharmaceutical, industrial, automotive and food industries as part of a project to research the malware logged by VirusTotal, which is owned by Alphabet cybersecurity subsidiary Chronicle. Otorio didn’t find any documents uploaded to VirusTotal that had been used in a cyberattack.