"Unable to open" messages after security scan.

[Guest Jeff]

During a recent computer scan, the log included several dozens of lines indicating that some files were "unable to open". Should I be concerned? I launched this scan and getting  message from ESET that "an infiltration is detected". Also provided by ESET was a message that an Eicar threat had been detected and removed. What should I do?

[Aryeh Goretsky 386]

Hello,

It is normal to see that some files could not be opened during a scan.  The ESET Knowledgebase Article at https://support.eset.com/en/kb2155-error-notifications-in-computer-scan-log explains the conditions under which this will occur (file held open exclusively by the OS, password-protected archive and so forth).

For more information about the 'infiltration,' a copy of the relevant log file entries would be needed.

EICAR is a "test" file used to check whether security software is installed and configured correctly.  More information can be found at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EICAR_test_file.

Regards,

Aryeh Gore

[peteyt 396]

As mentioned some files are locked by the OS and some are password protected. If you can, there is an option to run the scan as an Administrator which may help with some but for those listed above this won't help and can just be ignored