OK, you’ve got a firewall and a virus scanner installed on your PC. But soon two questions will arise – how good are these protections and do they work at all?
There are a few possible ways to answer:
(1) Check your firewall’s and virus scanner’s logs
If you’re not sure if the firewall and virus scanner works, the first thing you should do is to check these programs’ logs. As your computer is probably being attacked every 20 minutes or so, your firewall’s log should have a lot of entries. If it’s empty, you can start worrying, if it’s full – everything’s probably OK. The same story is true with a virus scanner.
(2) Testers’ web pages
If you still have doubts concerning your firewall and virus scanner’s capabilities, you can visit one of several websites, where you can safely test how good your defenses really are. But you should take the results with a pinch of salt – viruses and worms are upgraded daily and some of these websites might not have the most current anti-virus data!
(3) Eicar test file
Another option is to employ an Eicar test file, downloaded from www.eicar.org. It is a fake virus – a short program that doesn’t actually do anything, but any sensible virus scanner should detect and (hopefully) delete it immediately. If your anti-virus scanner does not detect and delete this test file, it means that it’s probably not working. Remember though that Eicar test file is a tool that checks only your virus scanner, not your firewall.
(4) Testing using actual viruses (not recommended!)
In some situations it can be also wise to test your system defenses using real viruses (Professionals only please!). It is sometimes done on real servers during the network setup, but it is strongly advised to avoid this method, especially if you’re only moderately experienced. Even if you have obtained sample viruses (and unfortunately it is possible to download such things from the Internet), don’t feel tempted to install them on your PC. You will risk much more than it is worth, especially if you’ve decided to infect your PC with everything at the same time.
(5) Rely on experts’ opinions
When you’re not sure if your firewall and/or virus scanner is good enough, you can just look for articles in computer magazines about Internet security. It is very probable that you will find your answers there. Such topics as “Comparing firewalls” or “Virus scanner tests” are very common, and it is almost certain that you will read a lot about your firewall’s or scanner’s strong and weak points. Such tests are performed by experts and they are more thorough than anything you will be able to prepare.
