Computer viruses are practically everywhere and affect everyone, both businesses and home PCs, both expert users and, above all, those who are more inattentive and less good at computers. A necessary (but not sufficient) prerequisite for not catching viruses on your computer is to have an antivirus installed that works with real-time control and is updated.
Real-time checking distinguishes true antivirus from pure scan program which can be useful for removing malware but not for preventing it from hitting.
All those who have an antivirus installed and those who use Windows 8 (in Windows 8 the antivirus is Windows Defender already integrated) can ask themselves if the antivirus is actually active and working since perhaps, for some time, it has not reported infections .
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It can be verified that the antivirus really works with a simple test
Without infecting your computer and risking making it unusable and damaging your system, you can create a small and harmless virus by simulating the fake presence of malware created by the European Institute for Computer Antivirus Research ( EICAR ) which is a bit of a standard. Practically all antivirus programs recognize this small file created by EICAR as a virus (although in reality it is not).
The file does nothing but bring up the writing " EICAR-STANDARD-ANTIVIRUS-TEST-FILE! " On the screen and does so only if it is not blocked by an antivirus.
Without downloading anything, to create the EICAR test virus, just open an empty text file with the Windows notepad and paste the following line:
X5O! P% @ AP [4 \ PZX54 (P ^) 7CC) 7} $ EICAR-STANDARD-ANTIVIRUS-TEST-FILE! $ H + H *Then close the notebook and save the file or save the file by giving it the name eicar.com .
If there is a working antivirus with real-time control on the computer that blocks viruses before they can run and infect the system, this file will be prevented from doing anything and the presence of the virus will be reported.
To do other tests, you can send the file to yourself via Email and try to open it to test the antivirus's ability to peck also attachments and files downloaded from the internet.
Keep in mind that this is a rather old test so, before closing everything and rest assured, also check that the antivirus is and remains updated.
In the event that the fake EICAR virus is not detected, consider that not all antivirus programs support this test (for example Malwarebytes) so some may ignore it (because in fact it is not a virus).
The EICAR test file does not open on 64-bit Windows computers.
If you need more certainty that your computer is safe and secure, first consult the online security checklist and answer the questions, then check if your pc is protected from malware and virus attacks with Nessus and Microsoft tests.
