How does it work?
VirusTotal offer different ways to submit files to the platform, be that via the web-interface, browser extensions or their very own API. The interesting thing here is that, through the use of the API, we can automate the submissions to VirusTotal and integrate the service in a SOC, when a suspicious or potentially malicious file is encountered.
https://www.virustotal.com/gui/home/upload
VirusTotal uses a large variety of antivirus scanners and URL/domain blacklisting services. Alongside that, specialized tools which serve as sandbox environments are utilized to extract valuable information about the behavior of the file.
Be safe!!
MD