Infection risk levels

How are risk levels of infections determined in Spyware Doctor?

Individual infections are displayed with a colored bar (), which is filled from left to right, depending on the level of risk. infection risk levels are summarized as follows:

• Info & PUAs (): these Potentially Unwanted Applications (PUAs) have some characteristics of malware, but possess no known risks. Typical characteristics could include:

• • Displaying low-impact advertisements

  • Partially uninstalling

• Low (): Typical characteristics could include:

• • installing components without informing the user

  • Returning non-sensitive data to other servers

  • Displaying nuisance adverts in pop-up windows

• Medium (): these infections may cause inconvenience and may display misleading information. Typical characteristics could include:

• • Presenting the user with a misleading or incomplete End User License Agreement (EULA) during installation

  • Displaying aggressive advertising in multiple pop-up windows

  • Pretending to uninstall

• Elevated (): these infections may interfere with the use of your system or may be capable of capturing low-risk data, for example sending web browsing habits to third-parties for targeted advertising. Typical characteristics could include:

• • No EULA displayed during installation

  • Displaying unsolicited advertising

  • Hijacking browser search pages

• High (): these infections may override user control of your system or pose high security risks such as capturing high-risk data for example, bank account details or passwords for unsolicited third-party use. Typical characteristics could include:

• • Involuntary installation with no user interaction or control

  • Hijacking browser home pages

  • Returning sensitive data to other servers

  • Automatically reinstalling itself following an uninstall

  • Examples of these infections include keyloggers and dialers

Notes:

• On rare occasions, useful software may be categorized as malware, on the basis that it possesses characteristics which we define as malware. For this reason, when you conduct a scan with Spyware Doctor, it is recommended that you review all detected items on your system, before you decide to remove or quarantine them.

• Malware is constantly changing and evolving, therefore infection risk levels may be updated without notice at any time.

• See our disclaimer for more information.