Category 5 - Very Severe
Highly dangerous threat type, very difficult to contain. All machines should download the latest virus definitions immediately and execute a scan. Email servers may need to come down. All three threat metrics must be High.

• Wild: High
• Damage: High
• Distribution: High

Category 4 - Severe
Dangerous threat type, difficult to contain. The latest virus definitions should be downloaded immediately and deployed.

• Wild: High
• Damage or Distribution: High

Category 3 - Moderate
Threat type characterized either as highly wild (but reasonably harmless and containable) or potentially dangerous (and uncontainable) if released into the wild.

• Wild: High
  or
• Damage: High and Distribution: High

Category 2 - Low
Threat type characterized either as low or moderate wild threat (but reasonably harmless and containable) or non-wild threat characterized by an unusual damage or spread routine, or perhaps by some feature of the virus that makes headlines in the news.

• Damage: High
  or
• Distribution: High
  or
• Wild: Low or Moderate

Category 1 - Very Low
Poses little threat to users. Rarely even makes headlines. No reports in the wild.

• Wild: Low
• Damage or Distribution: Low