Monday, 5th February 2007Anti-Virus Testing

A safe and simple way to test your Anti Virus software

I've often wondered about finding a safe way to test my anti virus and didn't particularly like the idea of simply waiting for an infected email to turn up.  After a brief search on the Internet, I found this little tidbit of information incredibly useful - it seems that Eicar (European Institute for Computer Antivirus Research) standardised a harmless string of letters that has been adopted by Anti Virus vendors as a test.

To test your anti virus software, simple copy and paste the string of letters below in to a text document, save it and before the save finishes, you should have been flashed a warning and the file should have been quarantined - if it hasn't, you may want to review your anti virus settings! 

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