Learn more about the reputation information in firewall alerts

Firewall alerts notify you of connection attempts from other computers and of attempts by programs on your computer to connect to other computers. The reputation details in the firewall alerts help you make more definite decisions on whether to allow or block communication attempts of networking applications.

You can use the reputation details to determine the trustworthiness of programs and running processes on your computer that access the network. The reputation-based security technology provides reputation ratings for files on the Internet based on the information that is collected from Norton customers.

Your Norton product obtains specific information such as file name and hash key about the file and sends this information to the Norton server. The Norton servers analyze the file information and provide a trust level for the file. This reputation information is sent back to your computer. Based on the reputation information of the program, you can allow or block the inbound traffic or outbound traffic. If any of the file is suspicious or vulnerable, Norton assigns Poor or Bad trust level.

Your computer must be connected to the Internet to access the latest reputation information that Norton collects. If your computer is not connected to the Internet, Norton uses the reputation information that is available locally.

In the left pane of the firewall alerts, you can find the following reputation information:

Prevalence

Shows the user prevalence of the file. This data is based on the information that millions of Norton Community Watch customers shared and Norton's research analysis.

The different categories are:

  • Very Few Users

    Indicates that the file has very low user prevalence.

  • Few Users

    Indicates that the file has average user prevalence.

  • Many Users

    Indicates that the file has high user prevalence.

Age

Indicates the age of the file based on the data that millions of Norton Community Watch customers shared and Norton's research analysis.

Trust Level

Shows the trust level of the file.

Norton assigns the following trust levels:

  • Trusted - Indicates the file that is Norton Trusted.

  • Good - Norton has high indications that the file is trusted.

  • Unproven - Norton does not have enough information about the file to assign a trust level to the file.

    The file is neither safe nor unsafe.

  • Poor - Norton has only a few indications that the file is not trusted.

  • Bad - Norton has very high indications that the file is not trusted.

    This file is suspicious and can harm your computer.

If the Firewall Alert window displays Poor or Bad reputation, we recommend that you select the Terminate or Block Always option from the Options drop-down list. This action terminates or blocks all access attempts by the program or process. This program or process is suspicious and can harm your computer.

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