Okay, most people who focus on prevention of Computer Worms/Viruses/Trojans/Spyware, focus mostly one one side of the equation, namely having Anti-virus and Anti-Spyware programs to prevent and "hopefully" detect and clean up viruses, worms, and trojans. The problem with this as I have posted is that it is not 100% guaranteed to work and may be only a band aid fix/solution, albeit an important one. Equally important if not important is to look at a computer user's high risk behaviours that would put their computer at high risk of getting infected. The key is to avoid these behaviours. As a case in point, my laptop was protected to the hilt and connected to a router. However, I used Limewire(peer to peer file sharing program) and before you new it my WindowsXP got infected and I was unable to access the Internet(no biggie as I was able to use a Linux Live cd to continue to surf the net - needless to say I still decided to format my hard drive and reinstall everything. Something that took me two days to complete - there were about 70 microsoft patches that had to be installed as part of the update). Abstinence from these behaviours may be the best form of protection.

(1) E-Mails - Do no click on suspicious E-Mail attachments and delete them immediately. E-Mail is a common mode of virus, spyware, Trojan, and worm infection, distribution and replication.

(2)Instant Messanger/Chat Programs/File Sharing Programs - Instant messanger programs are also a common mode of infection and new and emerging viurses, worms, Trojans and Spyware. Best to avoid these all together. Now, for anyone who has a family computer shared by their teenage children, good luck getting your children to avoid using Peer to Peer music downloading/file sharing programs, instant messanger programs, and Chat programs. The best thing to do in such a situation is to have a seperate computer for yourself and one for your children. If you cannot afford this, then set the computer to boot from the CD Rom, burn one of many live CD linux operating systems(distros) to CD, and run these off the CD. This way you can surf the net, do all your banking, and financial transactions without fear of some unknown virus/Trojan(keylogger)/worm/spyware program interfering with your ability to access certain web sites, redirecting you to malicious web sites, and possibly placing your passwords and financial information(credit card information) at risk of hacker theft.

(3)Micrsoft Windows by its very design and architecture is at high risk of virus/worm/spyware/Trojan infection. Why do you think that Microsoft has to constantly release patches and fixes to patch up vulnerabilities and exploits that are almost discovered daily. There is no operating system that is perfect, but MacIntosh's Operating System and Linux is by far safer and less likely to be infected than Windows. Another good reason to consider these. As I have posted before, if you run linux live CDS to surf the net, you need not give up WindowsXP.