My background: I have been in the past a systems administrator working in Silicon Valley for several co, one being a biotech where I caught the Dir of Bioinformatics stealing data. I also secure all systems for my family living in three different locations, ea more than 25 miles away from me. I use to build very complex systems at home with VMware vSphere, Linux, OpenBSD and Windows just for security... security is a real mess. Very hard to do.
I like the URL, VirusTotal rocks, but I don't know if that will keep your credit card safe. The hacks are often on the server and they often do not inject the malware in to the stream down toward client systems.
I'd only shop at places that are big, and well known. They probably have the staff to keep their systems secure most of the time. Every site on the Internet can be hacked using what are known as "Zero Days." Even the NSA and FBI have been hit.
I do not download images from the Internet to my system and I rarely download executeables/pdfs... when I do they are scanned and I run a number of other tools monthly that are designed to work above and beyond Norton AV that I have.
Use an application in Win 10 called "Snipping Tool" to save every image. For those of you without that OS use SnagIt. Grab that portion of your screen and then save it locally. Do not save files from anywhere on the Internet to your system if it can be helped.
I always keep my Win 10 OS up to date. I was using Microsoft EMET but it's a royal pain in the ***. I've asked a few times for downloadable configuration files but nobody has stepped up and it is difficult to tune.
If you are using Win 10, make sure that you have the Windows Anniversary Update to Win 10.
* On the lower right hand side of the Task Bar, click on the "Notification Box."
* Select "All Settings"
* Select "Update and Security"
* Select "Check for updates"
* DO THIS EVERY WEEK!
To secure my Firefox browser which I also ALWAYS keep up to date I use:
*
Ad Block Plus
*
NoScript
*
EFF Badger
*
uBlock
To make use of NoScript, you are going to have to allow most (but not all) scripts to run on your favorite and necessary websites, such as banking and ECF. The rest of the tools are for the most part hands off but they may require some tinkering. Security is FREE in some cases but not FREE as in what you put in to learn how to use the tools.
To scan my system for viruses and malware I use the following FREE tools:
*
Microsoft Safety Scanner
*
Norton Power Eraser
*
ESET Tools
Of course I run an anti virus app, and I use Norton Security. I make sure it's up to date once a week. I have one full system scan every day (scheduled) and I have hourly quick scans (scheduled) all day long.