Spyware Protection 2010

The ESL Threat Scorecard is an assessment report that is given to every malware threat that has been collected and analyzed through our Malware Research Center. The ESL Threat Scorecard evaluates and ranks each threat by using several metrics such as trends, incidents and severity over time.

In addition to the effective scoring for each threat, we are able to interpret anonymous geographic data to list the top three countries infected with a particular threat. The data used for the ESL Threat Scorecard is updated daily and displayed based on trends for a 30-day period. The ESL Threat Scorecard is a useful tool for a wide array of computer users from end users seeking a solution to remove a particular threat or security experts pursuing analysis and research data on emerging threats.

Each of the fields listed on the ESL Threat Scorecard, containing a specific value, are as follows:

Ranking: The current ranking of a particular threat among all the other threats found on our malware research database.

Threat Level: The level of threat a particular computer threat could have on an infected computer. The threat level is based on a particular threat's behavior and other risk factors. We rate the threat level as low, medium or high. The different threat levels are discussed in the SpyHunter Risk Assessment Model.

Infected Computer: The number of confirmed and suspected cases of a particular threat detected on infected computers retrieved from diagnostic and scan log reports generated by SpyHunter's Spyware Scanner.

% Change: The daily percent change in the frequency of infected computers of a specific threat. The formula for percent changes results from current trends of a specific threat. An increase in the rankings of a specific threat yields a recalculation of the percentage of its recent gain. When a specific threat's ranking decreases, the percentage rate reflects its recent decline. For a specific threat remaining unchanged, the percent change remains in its current state. The % Change data is calculated and displayed in three different date ranges, in the last 24 hours, 7 days and 30 days. Next to the percentage change is the trend movement a specific malware threat does, either upward or downward, in the rankings. Each level of movement is color coded: a green up-arrow (∧) indicates a rise, a red down-arrow (∨) indicates a decline, and a brown equal symbol (=) indicates no change or plateaued.

Top 3 Countries Infected: Lists the top three countries a particular threat has targeted the most over the past month. This data allows computer users to track the geographic distribution of a particular threat throughout the world.