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How to Scan and Validate Links for Malware and Viruses

Scanning and validating links for malware and viruses is an essential step to ensure the security of your website and protect your users. Malicious links can redirect users to phishing sites, download malware onto their devices, or exploit vulnerabilities in their browsers. This article provides best practices and step-by-step instructions for scanning and validating links.

Why Link Scanning is Important

There are several reasons why you should scan links on your website:

  • Protect users – Scanning links prevents your users from visiting malicious sites or downloading malware. This maintains user trust in your website.
  • Maintain site integrity – If your site contains infected links, it could get blacklisted or banned from search engines. Proactively scanning links prevents this.
  • Adherence to regulations – Many industry regulations require websites to actively scan for malware and vulnerabilities. Failing an audit can lead to heavy penalties.

Best Practices for Link Validation

When validating links, keep these best practices in mind:

  • Use multiple scanners – Relying on just one scanner can lead to false negatives. Using multiple scanners improves accuracy.
  • Scan automatically – Schedule recurring scans to catch new threats. Scanning manually leaves gaps where infections can occur.
  • Scan internal and external links – Internal links can also be hacked. Scan all links, not just outside ones.
  • Check redirects – Follow all redirects when scanning to catch cloaked links hiding redirects.
  • Prioritize critical links – If short on time or budget, scan login pages and links handling sensitive info first.

Tools for Scanning Links

There are many free and paid tools available for scanning links:

Free Tools

  • VirusTotal – Scans links against 70+ antivirus engines and online sandboxes.
  • URLVoid – Checks links against over 130 blacklist services and online sandboxes.
  • PhishTank – Community-powered phishing detection and reporting tool.
  • URL Scan – Detects malware, spam and phishing threats from websites and links.

  • Sucuri – Daily malware scans plus blacklist monitoring and removal.
  • Norton Safe Web – Scans links for threats and blocks malicious sites.
  • Comodo Site Inspector – Catches malware, SEO issues, and broken links.

Paid tools offer added features like recurring scans, threat monitoring, and integration with site cleanup tools. They may be worthwhile for business-critical sites.

Step-by-Step Guide to Scanning Links

Follow these steps to scan and validate the links on your website:

1. Crawl Your Website

The first step is to crawl your entire website to extract all links for scanning. This can be done manually for small sites, but larger sites will need a crawler tool like Xenu Link Sleuth or Integris Link Checker.

Save the list of links extracted by the crawler to a text file.

2. Scan Links

Take the link list and run it through one or more link scanning tools from the lists above. Most scanners accept lists of links fed through the user interface or API.

For example, to scan with VirusTotal:

  1. Navigate to Virus Total
  2. Click “Browse” and select the text file containing your links
  3. Click “Scan” to start the scan
  4. Results will show infected links with the specific issues found

Review all infected links and take note for the next step.

3. Assess and Cleanup Infected Links

For each infected link found, assess the threat level and take appropriate action:

  • Edit or remove harmful internal links
  • Consider blocking dangerous external sites
  • Update vulnerable web software powering malicious pages
  • Restore cleaned pages from backup if needed

Be sure to rescan cleaned pages to validate they are no longer infected.

4. Schedule Recurring Scans

With the initial scan complete, the last crucial step is to schedule recurring scans to catch new threats. Most paid tools provide scan scheduling options.

For free tools, use cron jobs or web automation bots to run automated scans on a set schedule, such as weekly or monthly. Check links manually in between scheduled scans.

Consistent scanning ensures your links stay clean over time and maximizes the safety of your website.

Conclusion

Scanning and validating links should be part of every website’s security strategy. Following the best practices and step-by-step guide above helps maintain site integrity, protect users, and avoid costly infections.

Investing time into regularly scanning links creates peace of mind by confirming your site does not contain hidden malware or direct users to malicious destinations. With the right preparation, you can stay confident your website links are safe and secure.

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