Antivirus in the cloud: Is remote security remotely secure?

Need to check a single file for a virus? There's a Web app for that -- several, in fact. With these scanners you can check individual files quickly for infections, rather than having to load up a desktop program, update its definitions and launch a scan. We've got two suggestions.

Kaspersky Lab
Kaspersky's File Scanner works like adding an attachment to an email: choose the file on your computer and click submit. Your file is scanned, and if a virus is found... well, you're going to need to get it cleaned, because these tools only tell you if a file is infected. Best fire up one of the free virus cleaners mentioned on the previous page. Note also that Kaspersky's file scanner only allows files up to 1MB to be uploaded.

Virus Chief
Interesting one, this. The principle of Virus Chief is the same as Kaspersky's File Scanner, only instead of your single uploaded file being scanned by one company's antivirus engine, it goes through ten -- Antivir, Avast, AVG and BitDefender's, to name just four at the beginning of the alphabet. This way you're getting ten opinions on whether you need to bother getting that file cleaned.

Next: The thrilling conclusion...