Let’s face it; spyware is part of our digital life. No matter how many world class anti-spyware we use, some will always slip through. But that doesn’t mean you should drop all of your guard and let the spyware take over your PC without a fight. That’s the reason we still need, use and trust different kinds of anti-spyware who are our last line of defense against all the badwares. But what will you do when the defender become offender? That means when the anti-spyware itself is working as a spyware.
We all have to agree the case is pretty damn code red plus situation when our antispyware goes rogue. So let’s first define what the hack is those thing? In simple word those are just a type of computer malware that deceives or misleads us (the users) into paying for the fake or simulated removal of malware.
How they disguise?
- Mostly these stuffs are Trojan which mislead us into installing, the most common disguise for these rogue spywares are:
- Browser’s plug-in or extension (mostly media codec type)
- Image, screensaver or archive file attached to an e-mail message
- Multimedia codec required to play a certain video clip, very commonly seen in video files downloaded in torrent sites.
- Free online malware scanning service (Most common—and a lot of people really fall for it)
What they do?
Most common symptom of rogue spywares are usually directing the users to some cheap porno site or Viagra stores 
in addition to that they may also:
- Displays fake screen of system crash, malware detection and performance issues etc.
- Disable parts of system to prevent authentic anti-malware software to perform.
- Offer urgent fix to computer yet prevent user to ignore the fix.
- Provides authentic-looking pop-up warnings and security alerts, mimicking actual system notices. But the notice keep coming back even after user cancel it.
Who they are?
This is the million dollar question, which is very difficult to answer. Why? Every day hundreds of new malware vendor turned to the simpler, more profitable business model of rogue security software, which is targeted directly at users of desktop computers. There are even functionally-identical versions of the same program repackaged as successive new products by the same vendor. According to Finjan’s latest Cybercrime Intelligence Report, there were 1.8 million unique users redirected to the rogue antivirus software during 16 consecutive days. According to the report between 7 percent and 12 percent of people end up installing the rogue antivirus software and 1.79 percent of them paid $50 for it.
There are couples of organizations who are dedicated to list down rogue spywares. Since the list change so frequently, it’s advisable to keep an eye on them at regular interval.
What you should do?
Since most of the attack is targeted to PC (MAC version of rogue spywares are also beginning to spread), you can use MS Malicious Software Removal Tool, which updates every month. If you hate downloading and want to scan your PC online, you can use Windows Live safety scanner .
Install only trustworthy anti-spyware, research and consult with your friends, co-workers before you install any unknown/new anti-spywares. Only use which are proven to be trustworthy, ex-