Next, I’ll go on to reflect on my test. My AV didn’t prevent me from downloading the two eicar files when the dialog box asks if I want to download the files. This is a sign that Symantec Endpoint Protection is not really working effectively. But in the later steps to scan the files, SEP did manage to identify the files as virus and deleted it automatically. This can be seen from the screen shot I captured. Like the previous practical, I also did a research on web to find out what if the AV is not working. The following is a direct quote from (http://www.tech-pro.net/howto_000.html)

If your anti-virus product should fail to prevent you from running the file, it will simply display the text "EICAR-STANDARD-ANTIVIRUS-TEST-FILE" in a DOS box. No harm will have been done, but you should probably consider using a better anti-virus product, because if it had been a real virus, your computer would by now be infected!