SelectionToolkit

Posted: December 17, 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:	2/10
Infected PCs:	54

First Seen:	December 18, 2013
Last Seen:	June 22, 2020
OS(es) Affected:	Windows

SelectionToolkit is a Potentially Unwanted Program that provides minor benefits to your computer, but also modifies your browser to load new advertisements. As a general guideline, malware experts recommend reducing your contact with third party advertisements that could be used to harm your PC, and this guideline is particularly important with respect to SelectionToolkit, and other programs with disreputable origins. If you're cautious enough to scan potential SelectionToolkit installers before launching them, most anti-malware products should be able to detect SelectionToolkit, although removing SelectionToolkit after the fact also is a viable, if suboptimal possibility.

Why You'd Do Well to Select Any Add-On Other Than SelectionToolkit

PUPs like SelectionToolkit and similar adware products aren't threats and don't have the same kind of deliberately harmful functions as Trojans, viruses or worms. Nonetheless, their functions may prove to be very harmful in their own ways, with side effects such as poor browser loading times, crashes and site accessibility problems all being known to occur. SelectionToolkit may update itself and add new functions, which makes its capabilities something of a moving target, although malware researchers warn readers to expect some of the following problems:

Pop-up advertisements that load regardless of which sites you're visiting.
Changes to sites that are being viewed through a SelectionToolkit-affected Web browser. Injected text links (AKA 'inline text advertisements'), banners and affiliate search results all may be encountered.
The use of full-window advertisements that interrupt your browser's loading of other sites, forcing you to sit through the advertisement (known as an 'interstitial') before continuing onward.

All of these advertisements have the potential to host unsafe content, with the greatest dangers being script-powered exploits that allow attackers to install threats onto your computer immediately. Blocking JavaScript and other browser features can provide a defense against these attacks, although they're not a complete substitute for removing SelectionToolkit.

The Right Tools to Tear an Advertiser's Toolkit Off Your Browser

SelectionToolkit may have some minor advantages for your browser, but malware experts never would consider the benefits of adware to be worth the price they exact in terms of your online safety. Even though SelectionToolkit may resemble any other browser add-on that may be disabled or uninstalled through standard procedures, using anti-malware products instead, can allow you to remove SelectionToolkit and its browser modifications with a degree of thoroughness that's ideal for uninstalling adware.

Malware researchers still are hunting down the primary distribution methods for SelectionToolkit. However, most forms of adware prefer to use bundles, wherein an unrelated program may happen to install an additional add-on. Anti-malware products and similar security tools can detect SelectionToolkit bundles, just as they can detect most installers for unwanted software so that you can avoid launching them – and giving your browser an unhealthy dose of advertisements.

Technical Details

Registry Modifications

The following newly produced Registry Values are:

HKEY..\..\..\..{RegistryKeys}Software\AppDataLow\Software\SelectionToolkit

Additional Information

The following directories were created:

%PROGRAMFILES%\SelectionToolkit%PROGRAMFILES(x86)%\SelectionToolkit