Many pieces of Malware that are talked about on internet forums, could never get a foothold on the PC if proper 'Preventive' measures are taken.
Remember, the old saying that "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure".
I almost break down in tears, when I install a great program like Spybot Search & Destroy, set it up in Advanced mode and even give my customer a printed sheet of instructions on how to get updates, Immunize and run scans, and I go back to an infected PC a year later and find out that NOT ONE update was ever done.
Setup on Spybot S&D is critical, for the program to operate at its full potential. I wrote up a full sheet of instructions on just how to set up the program and I even put that instruction sheet on my web site, so anyone can use it.
* My web site server is currently down. So I can only share that instruction sheet via PM or email.
Unless people get up off of their complacency and get ACTIVE in keeping their Security Software up to date, etc, spyware and viruses will continue to flourish.
I love Spybot S&D and have used it for years and I share it with EVERY one of my customers, but unless it's kept up to date, every Wednesday, it's not worth anything. An out-Of-Date security program is like NO Security Program at all.
A great companion to Spybot S&D, is "Spyware Blaster". It does no scans, but passes information about BAD web sites off to the Browsers, I.E. and Firefox. That prevents your browsers from ever going to known BAD sites, just like the Immunization in Spybot S&D.
Another great FREE program, that seems to work well along side most Anti-Virus programs, is "Malwarebytes". The FREE version, like Spybot S&D and Spyware Blaster, does not automatically update itself. (the paid version does). I purchased the Paid version, just to get real time scanning and auto updates/scans.
I run it on my own computer along side AVG 2011 Pro and the two program get along great together.
Keeping a computer safe isn't rocket science, but, it does require a little bit of operator intervention and dedication.
Cheers mates!
Old Timer