EICAR, the European Institute for Computer Antivirus Research, was founded in 1991 as an organization aiming to further antivirus research and improving development of antivirus software. Recently, EICAR has furthered its scope to include the research of malicious software (malware) other than computer viruses and extended work on other information security topics like content security, Wireless LAN security, RFID and information security awareness.
EICAR, in collaboration with the Computer AntiVirus Researcher's Organization , is perhaps most notable for the EICAR test file. an innocent, executable string, designed to test the integrity of antivirus software.[1]