Threat Meter Levels
Close
McAfee® Avert Labs has developed a general ranking system that indicates the severity of known global threats and how they impact the Internet, business operations, and home user’s systems.
Below are the threat levels, listed from most severe to least and how the severity is determined.
Critical
Critical
- Systems worldwide are targeted by a worm.
- New malware that potentially can cause damage has been reported and has spread globally.
Severe
Severe
- An unpatched or recently patched vulnerability can be exploited by a worm, and systems worldwide are at risk to be targeted by a particular worm. No worm activity has been identified.
- A high incidence of new malware that potentially can cause damage has been reported.
Elevated
Elevated
- An unpatched or recently patched vulnerability is present on many systems worldwide but requires user interaction to be exploited.
- An existing vulnerability becomes more serious because new exploit code has been published.
- There is new malware activity, but it is not widespread.
Low
Low
- There is no direct threat to systems that have been patched.
- No new significant malware activity has been reported.