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:

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

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.

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By Kristi Albertson. Published by The Daily Inter Lake

Secure sites have made the Internet safe for diligent consumers, but scammers are always seeking an edge.

Amber Hewitt began banking online in January.

She’d always been reluctant to switch to Internet banking, being leery of scams and the possibility of having her identity stolen. But after she tried it, Hewitt became an online-banking convert. She loved the convenience of being able to access her accounts from home and send payments over the Internet.

Hewitt now wishes she’d maintained her initial caution.

After just a few months of checking her accounts and paying bills online, one day while trying to access her account, she was redirected from her bank’s Web site to a new page requesting personal information.
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