Posted 04/03/2009 at 01:36:52pm

As a consultant, I make sure my clients don't have viruses and none of them do.
  It's not rocket science. For home users, the free anti-virus programs work great (provided they are updated frequently) so I recommend AVG or Avast.
  Second, MS updates must be turned on automatic. The days of updates causing major problems seem to be past, but on balance even if they do cause an occasional blip, let's face it, they do a lot more good than evil.
 Third, I train my clients to be aware of what they're doing. We all have a natural sense of danger when walking down a dark alley, but many don't have any sense of danger when wandering around on the internet.
 Many of us are suckers just waiting for some popup to tell us we must buy a "registry repair" program - or else... but I teach my clients to NEVER pay attention to any internet popup - ever. Any company who uses this kind of advertising is obviously unable to sell their program by means of any legitimate means, so avoid them like the plague.
 Many parents don't pay enough attention to what their kids are doing online. Yes, we've all been warned and warned and warned again, but many think so long as their kid isn't chatting with a predator, they are just fine. But these same parents who do their banking online, manage their investments online, and shop online - all which involve transmitting extremely personal information - don't pay attention when little johnny is downloading "warez" or mp3s off of torrent sites which are likely to assault their personal computer with malware, worms or viruses like conflicker.
 Many of there parents assume their kids are more, "tech savvy" than they are, but even if their kid knew more about how an engine runs would they let their 12 year old drive their new sports car in the bad part of town? How rediculous! And yet, parents allow their children to, "drive" all their personal information around the entire world of theives and miscreants. I take a, "belt and suspenders" approach to this.
  
First, parents have two choices: get the kids their own computer (NOT in their own room, no matter how much you trust them) or they need their own LIMITED account on the family computer. Parents need to approve each and every download the kids make on the family computer. If the child has his or her own computer it still needs to be protected from the child particularly if the computer is networked to the parent’s computer. Also parents need to monitor the computer or shelve it. I can’t tell you how many computers I have had to “refresh” because of young one’s lack of experience with the internet. This can be expensive and time-consuming unless the parents really know what their doing. Even if the child is technical enough to do this, they obviously weren’t wise enough to protect themselves in the first place, so parents heed my advice: be careful with your children and computers, that is, unless you’re not worried about losing your data or worse yet, having your identity stolen and bank account emptied. Trust me, that’s no fun at all.