Web Services Demo

Traditional perimeter security products can not detect viruses, spyware and other malicious code that is encoded in an XML request, such as an RSS feed. The below demos use the so called EICAR virus, which is not an actual virus but the standard testfile in the content security industry. It can not do any harm to your computer. Every Anti Virus product has the EICAR virus pattern in its database and should detect and stop it without a problem. (For more information about EICAR, visit www.eicar.com)

Note: The Microsoft Picture Manager Component that is part of Office2003 together with Internet Explorer on Windows is used for Example 1.

XML is the basis of all modern Web communications. In fact, every Webbrowser and many applications use XML to communicate and to store and exchange data. Windows Vista will use XML exclusively as its fileformat. Office programs such as Excel and Word, but also many non-Microsoft products already use XML requests and exchange data with other applications through a technology standard called Web Services.

The below link will download an Excel file. Open the file and click on the “Get EICAR Virus” button. A line of text will appear in the spreadsheet, confirming the successful download of the EICAR Virus. ( For this demo, Macros must be enabled in Excel )

Webservice in Excel

Did you know? Every time you visit a Web site and click an icon, similar to the ones below, you are using XML / Web Services