TechFreeHelp

Posted: September 6, 2016

Threat Metric

The Threat Meter is a malware assessment that SpywareRemove.com's research team is able to give every identifiable malware threat. Our Threat Meter includes several criteria based off of specific malware threats to value their severity, reach and volume. The Threat Meter is able to give you a numerical breakdown of each threat's initial Threat Level, Detection Count, Volume Count, Trend Path and Percentage Impact. The overall ranking of each threat in the Threat Meter is a basic breakdown of how all threats are ranked within our own extensive malware database. The scoring for each specific malware threat can be easily compared to other emerging threats to draw a contrast in its particular severity. The Threat Meter is a useful tool in the endeavor of seeking a solution to remove a threat or pursue additional analytical research for all types of computer users.

The following fields listed on the Threat Meter containing a specific value, are explained in detail below:

Threat Level: The threat level scale goes from 1 to 10 where 10 is the highest level of severity and 1 is the lowest level of severity. Each specific level is relative to the threat's consistent assessed behaviors collected from SpyHunter's risk assessment model.

Detection Count: The collective number of confirmed and suspected cases of a particular malware threat. The detection count is calculated from infected PCs retrieved from diagnostic and scan log reports generated by SpyHunter.

Volume Count: Similar to the detection count, the Volume Count is specifically based on the number of confirmed and suspected threats infecting systems on a daily basis. High volume counts usually represent a popular threat but may or may not have infected a large number of systems. High detection count threats could lay dormant and have a low volume count. Criteria for Volume Count is relative to a daily detection count.

Trend Path: The Trend Path, utilizing an up arrow, down arrow or equal symbol, represents the level of recent movement of a particular threat. Up arrows represent an increase, down arrows represent a decline and the equal symbol represent no change to a threat's recent movement.

% Impact (Last 7 Days): This demonstrates a 7-day period change in the frequency of a malware threat infecting PCs. The percentage impact correlates directly to the current Trend Path to determine a rise or decline in the percentage.

Threat Level:	8/10
Infected PCs:	12

First Seen:	September 6, 2016
OS(es) Affected:	Windows

TechFreeHelp is a freeware application that its company markets as a news consolidation resource. Due to its having a suspicious installation history and triggering other security flags, TechFreeHelp is being classified as a PUP or Potentially Unwanted Program currently. You should resolve any symptoms traceable to TechFreeHelp or its website by following your Web browser manufacturer's recommendations on cleaning and using appropriate PC security tools.

A Company Trying to Help Your Browser Far Too Much

Even the problem of finding talented software programmers can pale in comparison to creating a successful distribution strategy in the modern Web marketplace. Although malware experts have yet to confirm whether the guilt lies with a third party affiliate or its original developer, TechFreeHelp's current distribution campaign shows one of the worst ways for freeware to promote itself. Recent reports highlight TechFreeHelp's benefiting from installation strategies basing themselves on attacks no different from those preferred by many Trojans.

These attacks circulate on advertising networks for prominent social networking sites, such as Facebook. Insufficiently protected browsers, particularly modern versions of Chrome, may load accompanying JavaScript vulnerabilities that trigger TechFreeHelp downloads automatically. The computer user must opt to open the file manually, which doesn't disguise itself as anything other than an installer for the TechFreeHelp news consolidation application.

Analyzing the original site hosting the download caused malware experts to see some evidence of these attacks being only one of a set of security issues with TechFreeHelp's company. The TechFreeHelp website also hosts content mislabeled as Windows security software and additional script-based redirects to other downloads, as well as potentially inaccurate or misleading data on its company's business history. Many of the IP addresses associated with Techfreehelp.com's content also have close connections to various types of unsafe Web content. These signs may point to a new domain that either its owners or hackers are exploiting for distributing threats or other PUPs besides TechFreeHelp.

Helping Yourself to a Permanently Canceled Download

For the moment, malware experts classify TechFreeHelp as being a Potentially Unwanted Program, although that classification ranking may become more severe at a later date. Since the most common security issues associated with TechFreeHelp involve non-consensual downloads, many of which may re-occur until they succeed, most users should prioritize having strict browser settings. Disabling advertisements, Java, JavaScript or Flash plugins can offer some degree of protection from these attacks. When you don't disable them, malware experts recommend keeping them updated to their latest versions, to reduce any vulnerabilities that an attacker (such as an HTML-based exploit kit) might use against you.

TechFreeHelp may be a harmless news resource under distribution by a company that's paying insufficient attention to its server security, but is just as likely to be another infection vector in a recent threat campaign. Whichever one is the truth, PC users not invested in using this software intentionally should use their security software to remove TechFreeHelp and any temporary browser data that could force its downloads to occur without your input.

'Free' and 'safe' sometimes are mutually exclusive concepts, and Web surfers browsing the Web without any protection from corrupted advertisements might want to consider the consequences of letting a company like TechFreeHelp's tell their browsers what to do.

TechFreeHelp

Threat Metric

A Company Trying to Help Your Browser Far Too Much

Helping Yourself to a Permanently Canceled Download

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