Antivirus Test - Is It Really Working

Due to the fear of viruses that are spreading in the world at an alarming rate, we install some kind of antivirus in our computer like Kaspersky, Eset Nod32, Mcafee, Norton etc. But after installing also the problem is never solved. Everyday new viruses are created which firstly attack our antivirus and destroy it making our system unprotected so from time to time it is very much necessary to test whether our antivirus is really working or not. Today i am going to tell you how you can create a harmless antivirus test file.

#Method:

- Open notepad.
- Copy the below code in notepad

X5O!P%@AP[4\PZX54(P^)7CC)7}$EICAR-STANDARD-ANTIVIRUS-TEST-FILE!$H+H*

- Now save the file as "name.com" anywhere in your computer.
- Scan this file using your antivirus. If antivirus detects it as a virus then it is working else you need to change it. (You can also try scanning the file after compressing it using winrar or any other software to test the strength of your antivirus)

About the file:

This test file is known as EICAR Standard Anti-Virus Test File. It is purely an harmless file and it does not contain any viral code inside it. When it is executed, it only prints EICAR STANDARD-ANTIVIRUS-TEST-FILE on the dos screen. Antvirus report this file as a virus with some obvious name like EICAR-AV-Test. It only contains ASCII characters and that too in upper case only so as to avoid confusion. Anti-Virus researchers wanted to create a psuedo viral file which is short and simple so that the customers can easily copy it to test their antivirus as it not preferable to ship a pseudo viral file along with the product.

It is always a good practice to test your antivirus from time to time so that you can keep yourself safe as we all know "Prevention is better than cure".