Many rogue antiviruses use generic names today. System Check, Win 7 Home Security 2012, Smart Protection. These names are not a result of lacking imagination, but well thought out scheme.

Firstly, Most of Rogue anti-malware parasites aim to cash in on Microsoft’s name. As the primary target are systems without any protection, they need a  name that sounds legitimate and made by Microsoft. There are plenty of security programs having these terms in name, so users are not too cautious if they can’t find reference about the exact program.

Secondly, generic names allow longer life span for the rogue parasite. Search algorithms can not guess searchers intent in all cases, thus it provides multiple and differentiated results. Thus people infected with System Check or Win 7 Home security 2012 might get at least some results describing legitimate and decent programs.  However, when the intent is quite clear (for example searches like “remove System Check” or “Win 7 Home Security 2012 scam”, the results are much better.

I think we will start seeing more and more parasites that have such names in the future. Thus People should be extremely cautious about programs that show various infections without being installed on PC or stopping you from uninstalling them, especially if they see Microsoft name or logo in the program windows.  Microsoft has only one antivirus, and this is Microsoft Security Essentials, which is free program and quite decent for a free one.