In a world bombarded with malware threats, you never know what’s lurking around the corner. Viruses are always looking for an opportunity for finding a way into your computer system. Any security-savvy person should have some sort antivirus software installed on his/her system; not limited to personal computers and smartphones. Well-known antivirus vendors include Kaspersky, Symantec (Norton), McAfee. The choice of antivirus software in use will go a long way to provide a more secure experience.
You may have an antivirus program installed but how do you know whether it is definitely active? Needless to say, it’ll be a bad idea to test it out using actual malware. Reason why researchers at the European Institute for Computer Antivirus Research (EICAR) came up with the EICAR Anti-virus test. It is a proven way to test the response of AV programs, without risking the system with real malware.
The EICAR test consists of a text file between 68 and 128 bytes. It can be bundled into a program which is executable by using specific file extensions (.exe, .bat, .bin). After execution, the EICAR test file will print “EICAR-STANDARD-ANTIVIRUS-TEST-FILE!” before stopping. If your anti-virus is effective, it should be able to alert to the presence of this file.
Open a simple editor (notepad will work just fine) and write following string of text:
