The best advice is to be careful about what websites you visit and keep an eye on the e-mail you recieve It's not a good idea to open e-mails from senders you don't know especially if it has an attached file.

Set up your computer to check for updates at least weekly. Same for your anti-virus (I prefer Norton over McAffee, but both will do a decent job). Here's a free anti-spyware program you can download (look toward the upper right side of the webpage) http://www.lavasoft.com They have more stuff like firewalls and the like, but the spyware program is free and works pretty good. And do look into installing firewall software. Just as a side note, anyone building a new computer might want to consider getting a motherboard with the Nvidia Nforce4 chipset because the ethernet interface has a built-in hardware firewall. This means there is no software to corrupt and no added applications the CPU has to run in the background. Plus a hardware firewall is more secure....Ok, geek rant over ::)