Use a good quality antivirus program. There are lots of different antivirus programs on the market. Check some of the magazines or review websites to help you find the one you feel is best suited to you, but remember : most expensive doesn't necessarily mean best.

ALWAYS make sure your antivirus software is running and scanning all your email, incoming and outgoing, and any software programs that you have running.

Keep your antivirus programs up to date. Every antivirus package that I know of has an automatic upgrade facility which will keep your antivirus ‘signature' files updated. You can set these updates to run at night whilst you're in bed and you can also schedule a full system scan so that when you get to your system in the morning, it's all done and ready to run. Also keep your computer up to date. If you use Windows, make sure that your computer is setup to receive the latest updates from Microsoft.

Backup your data as often as possible. If you set up folders for the most common tasks and documents, you can save them to a CD or USB key and save yourself hours of heartache. If your hard drive fails, it's easy to replace the programs, but if you don't have backups of your most valuable data, you're in trouble. I once had a virus that took my file allocation table away at midnight on the 4th of November and I lost everything….

If you use floppy disks or USB drives on public computers like your school computer or if anyone gives you a file on a CD, floppy or USB, make sure you scan them for viruses. You don't know where they've been.

Be extremely careful with email attachments. Treat any email attachment as potentially dangerous. Never open attachments from people that you're not aware of and from people that you know but weren't expecting anything from, especially .exe files.Don't forget that many computer viruses distribute themselves by using the email contacts from a computer that they've already infected and you can receive an email from a friend that the friend hasn't actually sent out.

Be wary of downloaded freeware and shareware files and software. If possible download them from reputable sources who ensure that the programs are scanned BEFORE they are uploaded. To be doubly safe, scan the program before you install it on your computer. I have a friend who recently had a KeyLogger infection and found that there had been attempts to access his bank account, eBay and PayPal.

On Instant Messaging sites, don't accept invitations or click on links from people you don't know, They can easily redirect you to another website that will try to install a virus on your computer system. My Antivirus software stops a few of these every week.

By following these steps you can safeguard your computer against malicious attacks and save yourself from the nightmare of lost data or worse.