ThreatSense® Early Warning System (3.0)

The Early Warning System allows your computer to become an active warrior in a war against computer security threats. Its principle lies in the rapid transmission of newfound infiltrations from your computer, directly to ESET's malware experts. This process speeds reaction to virus threats and contributes to overall security in the virtual world.

Your participation in this system is fully optional. The Early Warning System can be activated during or after installation of the product. In the event that you decide to turn it off, the functionality of the program is not affected.

When the Early Warning System is activated, it will send statistical information about new infiltrations to ESET's labs for thorough analysis. The analysis of these infiltrations helps us increase the detection capability of the ESET NOD32 system.

The Early Warning System will only send information related to a new infiltration. The submitted information contains a sample or copy of the file in which the infiltration has been found, the directory name, name of the file, detection date and time information, how the infiltration reached your computer, and operating system information. The submission is anonymous and doesn’t contain any of your personal data (unless the files submitted for analysis include them).

It is our strict policy to not store, distribute or maintain any information about you or your computer which is sent to our labs. Our only goal is to provide the best defense possible against new, unknown security threats.

By default, the ESET NOD32 system will prompt before submitting the suspicious file to ESET's labs for analysis. To protect your privacy, infiltrations found in files with certain extensions (e.g., .doc or .xls) are never submitted. If there are other file extensions you specifically wish to avoid sending, these can also be added to the no-send list.

We hope that you will help us to continue providing superior protection by using the Early Warning System technology. Together we can make the Internet a safer place!

Please see the steps below for instructions on accessing and configuring the ThreatSense.Net Eearly® Warning System settings.

The Suspicious files tab allows the user to configure the settings for anonymous submission of suspicious files. The following options are available:

• Do not submit for analysis: The program will not submit the suspicious files for analysis. If you have chosen to display a warning message after a suspicious file infiltrates, you will be offered to individually accept each file submitting, in the same dialog window.
• Ask before submitting: The program will gather suspicious files for analysis, but will ask the user for permission before sending.
• Submit without asking: The program will automatically gather and submit suspicious files for analysis without any dialog window being displayed.

When to submit section:

• As soon as possible: Statistical information will be submitted as soon as possible after a statistical package has been created (recommended if a permanent Internet connection is available).
  
  
• During update: Statistical packages will be collected and uploaded during the next virus signature update (recommended for dial-up users).

Exclusion filter section: Allows you to desginate that files with certain extensions are not to be submitted, even if they contain suspicious data (common examples are spreadsheet or word processing files). The most frequently excluded extensions are set by default. You can edit this list according to business or household preferences.

Add: Opens a dialog box add additional file extensions to be excluded from submitting.

NOTE: A “?” can be used as a wildcard for a single character and a “*” can be used as a wildcard for multiple characters. For example, if you wanted to exclude any file extension beginning with d, you could enter "*.d".

Edit: Click to display a dialog box which allows you to edit any entry from the list.

Remove: Click to remove any entry from the list.

Contact email (optional): Enter contact email which the ESET company analysts can use in the rare case that more information is needed about a submitted file. Most submitted files will be analyzed automatically without personal feedback.

The Statistics tab displays settings for the statistical portion of the submission.

The Early Warning System gathers anonymous information about your computer related to newly discovered threats. The information contains the infiltration name, date and time of detection, the ESET NOD32 system version, the operating system version and local settings. By default, statistics are sent once or twice a day to ESET's servers.

Enable submission of anonymous statistical information: Select this option to allow statistical information submission.

Submission tab, Submission distribution section:

• By means of Remote Administrator or directly to ESET: Suspicious files will be submitted by all means available.
  
  
• By means of Remote Administrator: Suspicious files will be sent to the Remote Administrator Server and then to ESET's labs for further analysis.
  
  
• Directly to ESET: Suspicious files will be sent directly to ESET's labs.
  

Enable logging: Select this option to allow logging of sent data to the ESET NOD32 system log.

1. Open the main program window by clicking the icon in the Windows notification area or by clicking Start → All Programs → ESET → ESET Smart Security or ESET NOD32 Antivirus.
2. From the main program window press the F5 key to access the Advanced Setup window. In the Advanced Setup tree structure, click Tools → ThreatSense.Net.
3. Select the Enable ThreatSense.Net® Early Warning System option to activate the Early Warning System and allow submission of statistical information about new malware. Click the Advanced setup... button to open a new dialog box containing the ThreatSense.Net Early Warning System settings.