FBI warnings are true—fake file converters do push malware
Just a moment...
The FBI is warning that fake online document converters are being used to steal people's information and, in worst-case scenarios, lead to ransomware attacks. [...]
Those websites always seemed pretty sus to me, too bad searches for how to convert always point to them rather than clear explanations of how to use software locally for the same purpose
The article seems to mostly be talking about imposter websites or tools promoted with ad space, not popular tools like CloudConvert. While I certainly would not use them for documents with sensitive information, there is no reason to believe they steal information and they certainly do not include malware in the download file.
You can't verify that, and they always have the opportunity to go rogue. Even if that doesn't happen, the problem here is that search engines are the sole practical arbiter of legitimacy anyway; people short on time are typing a search query about converting from one file format to another, getting links to webapps, and trusting that Google has got their back, which it does not. Even if you are squinting hard enough to see which results are ads, there isn't a guarantee that whichever webapp has the best SEO isn't malicious either.
Specifically word to whatever converters. People upload resumes, and their information is stolen, etc.
Careful what you upload online.
For Windows users, they can install:
open source, free,
and without any ads or data collection
It supports a lot of different file formats:
| Supported output formats | Compatible input formats | |
|---|---|---|
| Audio | flac, aac, ogg, mp3, wav | 3gp, 3gpp, aac, aiff, ape, avi, bik, cda, flac, flv, gif, m4v, mkv, mp4, m4a, m4b, mp3 mpg, mpeg, mov, oga, ogg, ogv, opus, rm, ts, vob, wav, webm, wma, wmv |
| Video | webm, mkv, mp4, ogv, avi, gif | 3gp, 3gpp, avi, bik, flv, gif, m4v, mkv, mp4, mpg, mpeg, mov, ogv, rm, ts, vob, webm, wmv |
| Image | png, jpg, ico, webp | arw, bmp, cr2, dds, dns, exr, heic, ico, jfif, jpg, jpeg, nef, png, psd, raf, svg, tif, tiff, tga, webp, pdf, doc, docx, odt, odp, ods, ppt, pptx, xls, xlsx |
| Document | doc, docx, odt, odp, ods, ppt, pptx, xls, xlsx, arw, bmp, cr2, dds, dns, exr, heic, ico, jfif, jpg, jpeg, nef, png, psd, raf, svg, tif, tiff, tga, webp |
You need to have Microsoft Office installed and activated in order to convert Office documents.