(A) Ensure you have anti virus and anti spyware up to date every day

(B) Consider having a separate credit or debit card with a low limit to use for online purchases- 

MICROSOFT SECURITY ESSENTIALS (MSE) was launched in September 2009.  It offers real time protection from viruses and spyware and is FREE and will remain free! It is user friendly and isn't forever popping up windows asking you what actions to take.  We recommend it.

  Advanced Systems Care Personal (ASC)  and Ccleaner are two very good free 'tune up' programs -removing cookies and temporary files and  more.  ASC also checks for malware which may have slipped through the real time protection of Microsoft Security Essentials.  We suggest you do not run the Registry cleaner elements of these programs.  Mostly they are OK but Carl Wilson has found some instances of them causing problems.  Do not bother about getting every update of Ccleaner but make sure you do download the latest one every 4 months or so.  Run these programs maybe once per fortnight.  Smart Defrag from Iobit.com can be run every 3 months or so.

  Email scams. PLEASE DO NOT FORWARD EMAIL WARNINGS ABOUT SCAMS AND VIRUSES.  GO TO THE HOAX-SLAYER WEBSITE - nearly all are false and you may inadvertently be passing on a virus in trying to 'help'!!

It's surprising and distressing that Australians are still handing over hundreds of thousands of dollars per month to Nigerian and other (mainly) West African conmen. A newer and slightly more subtle scam has been seen recently; an email informs you about tracking advice for goods ordered.  The advice as always is to delete these straightaway.  DO NOT REPLY to them.  Similarly, banks and other bona fide companies, NEVER ask for your details by email.  However much the email looks genuine - do not answer it: DELETE it.  Your bank will write to you in the good old fashioned way if the need arises.-see longer explanation of PHISHING below

  Windows Updates: MS release updates on the second Tuesday (US Pacific Time) each month (Weds in Australia).  However, even if you have automatic updates turned on, they may not download for several days (MS has to 'service' several hundreds of millions of computers and networks and this takes time!).  If you want to be sure of getting updates quickly, go to Microsoft's site and do manual update checks on a Wednesday afternoon or soon after. This will 'jump the queue'.

Explaining PHISHING

How does phishing work?

You'll receive a legitimate looking email that appears to come from a particular website, usually one that has an easily recognisable and trustworthy brand. The email will ask you to visit a website by clicking on an embedded link. This link will then take you to a dummy website and ask you to enter personal or financial information. The scammers then use your addresses, credit card numbers and expiry dates, usernames and passwords to defraud you.

There have been a number of cases where people have received emails giving the impression that they had been sent from CitiBank or Sun Bank for example. There was an urgent tone to the emails warning that account access could be blocked if no response was received. These are examples of "phishing".