Energy Community Toolbar

Posted: October 23, 2013

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:	5/10
Infected PCs:	185

First Seen:	October 23, 2013
Last Seen:	June 14, 2023
OS(es) Affected:	Windows

The Energy Community Toolbar is a browser add-on with an unfocused marketing campaign claiming that the Energy Community Toolbar can do everything from enhance your download rates to provide 'hand-picked' links for your benefit. Once you work done underneath its marketing, the Energy Community Toolbar simply is one of the latest variants of a Conduit toolbar, which modifies your browser to promote Conduit-affiliated search engines and monetizes your basic Web-browsing behavior for its own benefit. While the Energy Community Toolbar is unlikely to cause any kind of direct damage to your browser or PC, malware researchers see little to no reason to do anything other than delete the Energy Community Toolbar with a decent anti-malware program whenever the Energy Community Toolbar is detected.

Energy Community Toolbar: Skimming the Energy Off of Your Browser Experiences for Its Own Cash Reserves

Conduit.com toolbars have a well-earned reputation for unwanted behavior that includes refusing to be uninstalled easily, hijacking their victims' Web browsers and using misleading marketing techniques. The Energy Community Toolbar, like its countless relatives from the same family, does not include sufficiently damaging functions to be categorized as a Trojan or other type of threats, but usually is considered equivalent to a browser hijacker and a Potentially Unwanted Program (or PUP). Nonetheless, like other Conduit toolbars, the Energy Community Toolbar is marketed as an add-on that supposedly provides Web-browsing benefits for your personal use – even though its features are of questionable benefit, at best.

The Energy Community Toolbar usually only may be identified after its installation and the evidence of its main functions, which redirect your browser to Conduit-affiliated search sites like Search.Conduit.com. Although such sites usually aren't involved in the intentional distribution of anything worse than other toolbars like the Energy Community Toolbar, malware experts generally recommend avoiding them, and, especially, highlight the fact that these browser hijackers on the part of the Energy Community Toolbar don't have any advantages for your Web-surfing experience.

Getting the Energy to Do Something About a Relentless Energy Community Toolbar

Conduit add-ons like the Energy Community Toolbar and its kin tend to be distributed through freeware sites and other disreputable file-sharing sources, such as torrent networks. If you have reasons to continue using such untrustworthy sources for finding new software, SpywareRemove.com malware experts encourage the careful surveillance of installation processes with each new program, along with the regular use of anti-malware tools that can identify a bundled installer for the Energy Community Toolbar and, hopefully, block it.

Deleting the Energy Community Toolbar or other members of the Conduit toolbar family always should be left to reliable anti-malware products that are able to reverse all their browser changes with little difficulty. Examples of other brands of toolbars in the same family as the Energy Community Toolbar include the Sweet Tunes Toolbar, the Mini001 Toolbar, the Top 10 Toolbar, the MakeMeBabies Toolbar, the MySavings Toolbar, the Goofler Toolbar, the iPumper Toolbar and the Trustworthy Toolbar.

Technical Details

Additional Information

The following directories were created:

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