What is Trusted Advisor?
When it comes to device security, blocking and removing malware is just one of the many layers of protection you get with Malwarebytes for Windows version 4. While active protection and conducting routine scans are essential components of device security, Trusted Advisor helps you keep track of many other factors that are important for security and critical factors in your privacy and device health.
Whether you’re an avid techy well-versed in cybersecurity, or someone who is buying your first computer, Trusted Advisor makes security, protection, and privacy a breeze. Trusted Advisor combines the proven capabilities of Malwarebytes with the knowledge of the brightest industry experts to deliver an all-encompassing read out of your protection strength. Trusted Advisor comprises four main components to provide a holistic assessment of your security and privacy posture in a way that makes it easy to take action on items that negatively impact your protection.
Trusted Advisor components
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Dashboard status: An easy-to-read percentage score and rating provide an at-a-glance read-out to see if you are in good standing or if action is required to crush gaps in your protection. When we detect problems, you’ll instantly know how many issues need your attention, and getting started is as easy as clicking the See Recommendations button.
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Detailed overview page: Here, you’ll find a list of items requiring your attention, along with additional details on resolving issues. Advanced users will appreciate the ability to custom tailor the Trusted Advisor to their individual needs by specifying what gets monitored and what should be ignored.
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Alert notifications: When we spot an issue, Trusted Advisor keeps you well informed with optional desktop notifications that alert you when action is required.
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Powerful and robust monitoring: Trusted Advisor is like having your own personal team of security analysts always on the lookout for problems that put your security at risk. Our industry experts relentlessly monitor the ever-evolving security and threat landscape to maintain the latest knowledge about how infections happen. With that knowledge, Malwarebytes continuously improves the intelligence behind Trusted Advisor so that you always have the most proactive security measures to keep your data safe and private.
How is my score calculated?
Your protection score is comprised of two easy-to-read components that help you quickly assess how secure your device is.
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Percentage: a numerical score between 0% and 100%, where 100% is the best possible score, and 0% is the worst possible score.
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Rating: we eliminate all the guesswork by giving you an easy-to-read rating status that informs you whether your overall security is Poor, Fair, Good, Very good, or Excellent.
Protection score details
| Percentage | Rating | Explanation |
| 100% | Excellent |
You’ve maximized all of the protection capabilities available in Malwarebytes with your current subscription, in addition to settings and configurations within your operating system and browser.
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| 95% - 99% | Very good | No major problems impacting your protection, but Trusted Advisor has found some minor issues that you should review. |
| 80% - 94% | Good | No major problems impacting your protection; however, Trusted Advisor has found many issues that you should resolve to make sure you are fully protected. |
| 70% - 79% | Fair | No major problems impacting your protection; however, Trusted Advisor has found one or more issues that put you at risk or could make you more vulnerable to threats if you are not careful. |
| 0% - 69% | Poor | Trusted Advisor has found one or more significant issues impacting your protection and immediate action is recommended to prevent infections. |
What items affect my protection score?
Malwarebytes is committed to providing you with the best possible device security. We are continuously expanding and improving what Trusted Advisor monitors to cover you from all angles completely. The items we constantly inspect fall into six primary categories.
Item categories
Real-Time Protection: vital for keeping you safe from the most destructive threats and most common methods of infection.
Software updates: keeping your apps up to date is one of the easiest and most important ways to improve your score. As cybercriminals are always finding weaknesses and vulnerabilities, keeping your apps up to date helps make sure you have the latest patches and security updates available to stay ahead of the game.
General settings: checks for settings that may not be configured correctly within Malwarebytes, Windows, or your network preferences.
Device scans: routine scans are an essential security best practice. Our Smart Scan technology makes scheduled scans more convenient than ever and only starts when your device is not in use. Trusted Advisor will notify you if you get behind and need a reminder when it’s time to scan again.
Online privacy: taking a proactive stance on your privacy.
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Block companies and websites from seeing your IP address and location to identify who you are, where you live, or what you do on the Internet.
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Blocks third-party ad trackers that collect information about you by monitoring your online activity. This data is often shared and sold to marketing agencies exposing details about you that can be private or sensitive.
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Device health: slowdowns in your device performance can be a real drag. Trusted Advisor helps you get the most out of your device so that you will never have to be left guessing whether malware is causing your device to grind to a halt.
Subscription entitlement
Trusted Advisor also adapts to your subscription status to help you get the most out of your plan's protection components. No plan? No problem! For Free users, items requiring a Premium subscription are excluded from your score, giving you the best possible experience when using Malwarebytes and Trusted Advisor alongside another antivirus provider.
Issue severity
The items are also assigned a severity based on the potential risk relevant to the issue. When problems are found, the quantity and severity of issues are considered when determining your score. Since high severity issues expose you to the most significant risk, having a single high severity issue will impact your score more than having multiple low or medium severity issues.
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High severity: 61% to 39% of your total score
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Medium severity: 30% to 10% of your total score
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Low severity: 9% to 3% of your total score
Details page
To learn more and take action on problems found by Trusted Advisor, click the See recommendations button to be taken to a detailed overview page.
Status indicators
On the details page, items in a problem state will have a red indicator dot followed by a description of the issue. Many items also include an info tip to provide additional details about the issue and how it impacts your security. While an item is in a problem state, your protection score will be negatively impacted until the issue is resolved.
When an issue has been resolved, the indicator dot will change to green. Items with a green dot have a positive impact on your protection score.
Items appearing with a grey indicator dot do not impact your protection score. A grey dot is used to signify the item is either unavailable with your current subscription or intended for information purposes.
Customize Trusted Advisor
For advanced users, items monitored by Trusted Advisor can be ignored by clicking the 'x' next to the item description. An item can only be ignored if it is currently in a problem state - items in a resolved state cannot be set to ignored. Once an item is ignored, it is placed in the Dismissed items section. The Dismissed items section is hidden by default and can be shown by clicking the Show dismissed items button at the top of the page. When an item is in the dismissed state, it is no longer factored into your protection score.
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