Web Talk

On the Internet there are hundreds of Antivirus available. Some of them are for free while other ones cost you some bucks. Of course, after you install an antivirus on your computer you don’t have  way to know if it is good or not. Well, the only way to know this, is to get a real, harmful, virus. Of course, this is the latest thing you wish for you, your PC and your beloved files. Here is a simple test to know how effective an antivirus is.

Eicar.org (European Institute for Computer Antivirus Research) has got a test file for distribution known as the “EICAR Standard Anti-Virus Test File”.  Such a file doesn’t contain any virus or malware, but a simple code. It  consists entirely of printable ASCII characters and if scanned by an antivirus should be marked as a real threat.  Here is how to use it:

1. Open your Notepad.
2. Copy and paste the following code:

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

3. Save it as  testme.txt (or whatever name you want)
4. Scan it with your favorite antivirus.

If you want to know more, visit Eicar.org test file page. The page also contains 4 test files with different extensions (with the conde above)  to download and test on your antivirus software.