TEST YOUR ANTIVIRUS

Have you ever wondered how to test your
Antivirus software to ensure it ’s proper
working? Well here is a quick and easy
way to test your antivirus. The process is
called EICAR test which will work on any
antivirus and was developed by European
Institute of Computer Antivirus Research.
This process can be used by people,
companies and antivirus programmers to
test the proper functioning of the
antivirus/antimalware software without
having to deal with the real computer
virus which can cause damage to the
computer. Here is a step-by-step
procedure to test your antivirus.
1. Open a notepad (New Text
Document.TXT) and copy the following
code exactly onto it, and save the
notepad.
EICAR Test code
X5O!P%@AP[4\PZX54(P^)7CC)7}$EICAR-
STANDARD-ANTIVIRUS-TEST-FILE!$H+H*
2. Rename the file from New Text
Document.TXT to myfile.com
3. Now run the antivirus scan on this
myfile.com file.
If the antivirus is functioning properly on
your computer, then it should generate a
warning and immediately delete the file
upon scanning. Otherwise you may have
to re-install your antivirus.
NOTE: Most antivirus will pop-out a
warning message in the Step-1 itself
You can also place the myfile.com file in a
ZIP or RAR file and run a scan on it so as
to ensure whether your antivirus can
detect the test string in the compressed
archive. Any antivirus when scanning this
file will respond exactly as it will do for a
genuine virus/malicious code. This test
will cause no damage to your computer
even though the antivirus will flag it as a
malicious script. Hence it is the safest
method to test the proper functioning of
any antivirus.