Verify that your virus scanner is working
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The EICAR virus test is a harmless text file that is detected as a virus by most AV vendors. You can use it to verify that your local virus scanner is working (just copy the string into a plain text file), check to see if your email server scans for viruses (email yourself a copy), and test if scanners detect viruses inside archives (put it inside a zip file).
First, create a new text file and paste the following code into it:
Then save the text as a .COM file (any name will do, like eicar.com). To test that your antivirus is doing its job, you should try emailing the file to yourself as-is as well as zipped into an archive. If you just want to test your desktop scanner, right-click the file (again, you may as well try it as-is and zipped) and tell your antivirus program to scan away.Code:X5O!P%@AP[4\PZX54(P^)7CC)7}$EICAR-STANDARD-ANTIVIRUS-TEST-FILE!$H+H*
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