I thought I’d put together a few ways of testing your systems security setup. These are not virus or malware scanners but various ways of testing your current security software.

This is Part One of my Guide – Part Two of the guide covers more.

Virus Test

The Eicar Virus is a harmless virus that contains a string of characters that will be recognised by all Anti-Virus or Anti-Malware vendors. By downloading it your a/v should detect it and attempt to quarantine it. It can be downloaded in various formats (.txt, .zip) and is available here:

Eicar.org

The file will test that your antivirus is functioning properly.

Trojan simulator is similar but installs a process and a registry autostart entry that your av package should detect:

Trojan Simulator

Firewall Testing

Inbound

A firewall should be able to block incoming attacks from trojans or hackers. To test this ability it is good to see which ports are hidden on your computer or “stealthed”.

A good website to test your stealthed ports is GRC Shields Up! Follow the link below then click on shields up and follow the simple instructions.

GRC Shields UP!

For a firewall to be effective it needs to stop malware from contacting the internet. Malware may connect to upload stolen info, download more malicious software or serve you adverts.

Outbound

To test whether your firewall will allow leaks in different ways you can use the software from Comodo on this page:

Firewall leak testing tools from Comodo

This software when run will try and communicate with the internet in various sneaky ways to try and bypass your firewall. A good firewall should stop these methods. Don’t let your A/V block the file, as it may be detected as a potentially unwanted program but isn’t a virus.

Popups, as well as being really annoying can serve you malware. To test your Browsers Popup stopping ability then try these links:

Popup Stopper Test

Online Popup Blocker Tests

Online Phishing Sites Testing

PhishTank has a list of recently submitted phishes (website forgeries designed to scam in some way).  The confidently brave or secure can check out these by surfing to these links…  But be wary of clicking on these sites as they can often serve viruses. If a phish is detected then your security software’s phishing protection should warn you. Firefox and Internet Explorer in built phishing filters should also provide protection or warnings.

Phishtank.com

Conficker Test

To test whether you have the conficker worm, this website will load an image from some of the websites that the conficker worm attempts to block. The site explains itself better than I can but essentially if you are missing the images you could be infected.

Conficker Eye Chart

Browser Security Testing

Browsers have various security issues and to test your browser then surf here:

Browser Security Test

You may only have vulnerabilities if you are not running the latest version of your browser.

Test Your Email Spam Filter

This website will send you a number of emails designed to test your email software’s spam filtering abilities in a variety of ways:

www.nospamtoday.com

Photo by Wetsun

This is Part One of my Guide – Part Two covers more.

Think of any other ways to test your security setup for free? Let me know in the comments.

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