unwanted package upgrades

[nepal]

If there is a package such as the ssh packages that I have 
no use for (AFAICT) and would like to not have installed or 
enabled on my pc say for better security, is there any way 
to instruct Adept Notifier or any other similar package 
update mgr that I do not wish to upgrade and remove it from 
the list of available upgrades. Or is this a dumb question 
and if the original package is not installed then there 
would be no option to upgrade.

If that is the case, how can I determine if it is safe to 
remove such a package.

nepal.