Test Your AntiVirus Software Is Working

Caintech.co.uk received an email this week from a user that was worried that his Anti Virus software wasn’t working and if it was how can he test it. Well have no fear here is how to test that everything is working.

Traditional antivirus software detects viruses and other malware via signature definitions. EICAR is a non-viral string of code that most antivirus software has in their signature definition files.

EICAR allows users to check whether their antivirus software is running. For example, if you try to open EICAR.COM, if your realtime protection feature is enabled the antivirus software should generate an alert. You can also manually scan EICAR to test your on-demand scanner.

An EICAR test file can be easily created using any text editor, i.e. Notepad. To create an EICAR test file, copy and paste the following line into a blank Notepad file:

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

Save the file as EICAR.txt. It is now ready for testing. In fact, if your active protection was working properly, the simple act of saving the file should have triggered an alert.

So if everything is working fine you will receive an alert like below

Now if you don’t receive an alert you might want to uninstall your current AV and try another one.

Here is a list of the top rated FREE anti virus software

 Avast! Antivirus

 Microsoft Security Essentials

 Avira Antivirus

 Panda Cloud Antivirus

Review: Best Free Antivirus Software

One of the best security sites I have had the pleasure of read is selectrealsecurity.com and I would advise everyone to have a read.

Android Phone Apps Could Be Hiding Malware

Mobile phone apps downloaded from Android’s official store could contain malware that steals sensitive information and banking passwords, a report has claimed.

Anti-virus firm Kaspersky said that the number of attempts by hackers and malicious mobile phone programs to steal data from Android phones spiked by 34 per cent last month.

Once inside a handset, criminals need only seconds to drain entire bank accounts using stolen TAN codes (transaction authentication codes) sent by the banks to the phones for follow-up verification.

In October, Kaspersky records showed that for mobile threats, “Android leads the way” with 46.9 per cent of mobile threats by platform.

“An example of a malicious app distributed through the official store is Trojan-Spy.AndroidOS.Antammi.b,” said Kaspersky in a statement to Gulf News.

“Like traditional desktop malware, Antammi.b steals almost everything: contacts, texts, GPS coordinates and even photos. The activity log is then sent to the criminal behind the scam via a simple e-mail message, and the data is uploaded to a server.”

AVG Antivirus for Smartphones & Tablets automatically detects harmful Apps & SMS

AVG Mobilation is a free security solution that protects your phone from viruses, malware, spyware & online exploitation in real-time.

Download AVG for free today>HERE

Also you might want to consider the following:

• 

  Kaspersky Mobile Security

  Kaspersky Lab

  UK£7.95

• 

  Lookout Security & Antivirus

  Lookout Mobile Security

  Free

• 

  Dr.Web Anti-virus Light

  Doctor Web, Ltd

  Free

• 

  MyAntiVirus Pro – AntiVirus

  P.Defender Antivirus

  UK£6.49

Make a Fake Virus to Test Your Anti Virus

There is nothing like a good prank and a bit of a laugh where no one gets hurt and this can be used for that or it can be used to make sure you Anti Virus program is working.

 

 

Open up a Notepad window, paste in the following text, and then save it.

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

It should look exactly like this once you’ve pasted it…

And then you’ll almost instantly see a big fat warning that you’ve created a virus—as long as you’ve got anti-virus installed and working, of course. If you don’t see any warning, you should probably make sure your virus scanning software is properly enabled.

Now you know everything is working just fine……

Free Online AntiVirus Scanners

Following yesterdays post about antivirus applications to download for free, here is another post about antivirus tool but this time you don’t need to worry about downloading them they will scan your machine online.

BitDefender QuickScan

Panda ActiveScan

TrendMicro Housecall

F-Secure Online Scanner

VirScan

VirusTotal

Jotti

I have tried each one of these with a virtual machine and infected it myself and everyone picked up the virus and removed it. The best one I feel was the Trend Micro product as it gave me the most ease of use and was very quick.

If you know of any more that should be on this list feel free to add them in the comments section below.

 

AntiVirus List of Lists

In this day and age of security threats, antivirus software is a must have. Below is a list of antivirus vendors that offer a free version or a trail.

Take your pick

AVG Security

Nod 32 Security

Avast Antivirus

Kaspersky Security

Norton Antivirus

Avira Antivirus

Mcafee Antivirus

Quick Heal Antivirus

Panda Security

Bitdefender Antivirus

escan Antivirus

ClamWin Antivirus

panda cloud antivirus

Vipre Antivirus

emsisoft anti-malware

threatfire Antivirus

Rising Antivirus

Symantec Antivirus

F-Secure Antivirus

Microsoft Security Essentials