How to test your antivirus software

There are times when you think your antivirus software had stopped working. The last time it detected a fishy file was like half a year ago. Now you wonder is it still working or not. Why hasn’t it detect anything for the last few months?

Hey, why don’t you test it with a real virus? Let’s see if the AV will catch, or least detect it. Yeah, go ahead if you got the nuts. That virus might or might not be detected, and it might or might not destroyed your precious files just in case it pass through the AV filter. Nothing beats the thrill of gambling, eh?

Here’s a safer way to test your AV without the risk of breaking anything valuable. This method was developed by European Institute for Computer Antivirus Research to allow people, companies, and AV programmers to test their software without having to use a real computer virus that could cause actual damage should the AV not respond correctly.

1. Copy and paste this text into a text file

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

2. Save it to whatever file name you wish. As long as it is .txt file.
3. If your AV is working properly, it will display notification. Otherwise, there might be a problem with your AV software.

Sauce: EICAR

Tags: binary, computer, security, Software, virus