Threat Level

Panda's method for determining the threat level of a virus at any given moment.

Panda assigns a threat level to each virus in order to inform users about the type of risk a virus or other threat presents at any given moment.

The criteria used by Panda to determine the threat presented by a virus or other threat depends on: its distribution and the damage it can cause. Discover the new innovations in this gauge.

• Low threat: the virus is neither damaging nor widely spread.
• Moderate threat: the virus is either fairly widely spread and causes significant damage or not widely spread but causes serious damage.
• High threat: the virus is either very widespread and causes damage or relatively widespread and seriously damaging.
• Severe threat: the virus is widely spread and the virus is very damaging.

Logically, the threat level of a virus can vary, from low threat in one moment to severe in another, depending on how widespread it becomes. The Panda Threat Level monitors these changes in real-time.

Distribution

Indicates the spread of a virus. The more widespread a virus is, the higher the probability it has to infect user computers.

The distribution of a virus is determined by the infection rate, which measures the percentage of infected computers against the total number of computers scanned.

The damage levels of a virus are:

• Epidemic: the percentage of computers examined and infected by the virus is more than 10%
• Very widespread: The percentage of computers examined and infected by the virus is between 7.5% and 10%.
• Moderately widespread: The percentage of computers examined and infected by the virus is more than 1.0% and less than 7.5%.
• Not widespread: Less than 1.0% of computers are infected by the virus.

Damage level

ndicates the possible damage a virus can cause in a computer:

This damage can be more or less severe: messages appearing on the screen, lost or altered information, collapsed systems, program malfunctions, etc.

The damage levels of a virus are:

• Severe: causing serious damage. For example, the destruction or modification of files, formatting hard drives, sending information to third parties, generation of heavy traffic in servers, reducing system performance, opening security holes, permanent damage, etc.
• High: causes moderate effects. All viruses, as inoffensive as they may seem, attempt to cause damage to the user. Those that do not result in destructive action are classified as simply moderately damaging. For example, those that create messages to appear on the screen.

The Panda Virus Laboratory establishes the level of damage when the virus in question is analyzed for the first time.

What makes the Panda Threat Level different?

• This gauge was conceived to respond to genuine user concerns: What is the probability that I will be hit by a virus? If I am infected, what kind of damage can it cause?
• Panda assigns a threat level to each virus automatically and objectively. Its final goal is to measure the type of threat a virus presents at a given moment, so that the proper preventive measures can be taken.
• Panda gives more weight to the spread of a virus than to the damage it can cause, because the more widespread a particular virus is, the easier it is to become infected by it. All viruses attempts to harm a users computer no matter how slightly.
• As opposed to other gauges, the Panda Threat Level is calculated in real-time, based on the continuous worldwide virus activity. If you notice that the value has changed since last you checked, it means that the virus is either expanding or decreasing.