LOW indicates a low risk. No unusual activity exists beyond the normal concern for known hacking activities, known viruses, or other malicious activity.
GUARDED indicates a general risk of increased hacking, virus, or other malicious activity. The potential exists for malicious cyber activities, but no known exploits have been identified, or known exploits have been identified but no significant impact has occurred.
HIGH indicates a high risk of increased hacking, virus, or other malicious cyber activity that targets or compromises core infrastructure, causes multiple service outages, causes multiple system compromises, or compromises critical infrastructure.
SEVERE indicates a severe risk of hacking, virus, or other malicious activity resulting in widespread outages and/or significantly destructive compromises to systems with no known remedy.