As I’ve mentioned before, rogue security/maintenance programs are programs that pretend to perform a valuable function, while in fact being malicious in nature. These kind of programs have been in the rise lately, so I wanted to give you a list of the latest names different rogue programs have been showing under. This is not a complete list but includes the main ones seen in the wild:

• Windows AntiHazard Helper
• Windows AntiHazard Center
• Windows Process Director
• Windows Guardian Angel
• Windows Software Keeper
• Windows Problems Stopper
• Windows Health Keeper
• Windows No-Risk Center
• Windows Antihazard Solution
• Windows Risk Minimizer
• Windows Managing System
• Windows Safety Tweaker
• Windows Tools Patch
• Best Virus Protection

The most common infection method is by visiting a malicious website or a non-malicious website that has been subverted to infect its visitors.

Removal procedure for these infection vary from one to the other, but generally speaking, if you see one of the above programs, 1) Know that whatever alert it might prompt you with is false and should be ignored, and 2) If you don’t know how to remove it yourself, contact an expert who can help you. Some of these are tricky and have a specific sequence of steps in order to remove them successfully without damaging your computer.

Microsoft will release this coming Tuesday the 13th, on its usual schedule (second Tuesday of every month), the monthly updates for its different software products. The batch will contain 6 updates, one of which has the highest severity rating – critical – belonging to the Windows operating system.

Last week Adobe released an update for Adobe Flash player. This latest version, 11.1.102.62, patches vulnerabilities that, if exploited, could allow an attacker to take control of the affected system.

Last week as well Google released Chrome 17.0.963.65, to address multiple vulnerabilities in the web browser. Notice that Flash in Chrome is embedded in the browser, so to bring Flash to its latest version all you have to do is update Chrome to the latest version.

Computers with their software up to date are the least likely to be affected by malicious attacks.