Trustworthy Toolbar

Posted: August 26, 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.

Ranking:	1,110
Threat Level:	2/10
Infected PCs:	116,248

First Seen:	August 26, 2013
Last Seen:	October 17, 2023
OS(es) Affected:	Windows

The Trustworthy Toolbar is one of the newest incarnations of a Potentially Unwanted Program from the Conduit family of browser plugins, with questionable features that actually are closer to drawbacks for your PC rather than advantages. By changing various browser settings to promote Conduit brand websites, the Trustworthy Toolbar removes your own ability to control exactly what your Web browser loads, along with potentially causing other performance issues for your PC in general. SpywareRemove.com malware researchers usually don't see any justification for not removing Conduit-affiliated programs with anti-malware tools immediately, and, unfortunately, the Trustworthy Toolbar does not break this trend in the slightest.

How Being Too Quick to Trust an Installer Can Get You a Trustworthy Toolbar Problem

The Trustworthy Toolbar, which appears to be a direct update to Conduit's previous Entrusted Toolbar product, does not have any real benefits for your browser and includes functions that are intended primarily to redirect you to Conduit-related websites. The Trustworthy Toolbar may change your homepage, default search engine, new tab page and other default Web pages to conform to Conduit-brand domains. These changes will affect all major Web browsers, including IE, Chrome and Firefox, and they can't be reversed by altering your browser's relevant settings (such as your homepage field).

The Trustworthy Toolbar's installer usually isn't distributed by itself. Trustworthy Toolbar installers are being packaged with other software. Since the Trustworthy Toolbar's installation is a visible option that you can clearly see if you're paying attention, you always should disable the Trustworthy Toolbar when possible or, in other cases, refuse to install the related application entirely.

Giving Your Trust Back to the Software that Deserves It

The Trustworthy Toolbar and other Conduit-brand PUPs occasionally may interfere with the stability of your PC, since they're known for taking up memory constantly. Although removing the Trustworthy Toolbar and all browser changes related to the Trustworthy Toolbar may be difficult to accomplish by hand, SpywareRemove.com malware research team note that most competent anti-malware programs are able to identify and delete the Trustworthy Toolbar efficiently.

By themselves, Conduit websites are not infection vectors that intentionally distribute malware. Along similar lines, the Trustworthy Toolbar does not attack your computer in the way that a Trojan, virus or worm would do. Despite these caveats, there aren't any benefits to keeping the Trustworthy Toolbar or any other Conduit software on your PC. Related PUPs from the Trustworthy Toolbar's family also include (for just a few examples) the OurWorld Toolbar, the Freecause Toolbar, the From Doc to Pdf Toolbar, the Mediaget Toolbar, the Search Assistant WebSearch and the DivX Browser Bar.

Technical Details

Additional Information

The following URL's were detected:

wholedailyfeed.com