STEP 1
Never click on a link or attachment in an email that you are not positive is from a trusted source. If you think the e-mail looks suspicious, it probably is. It never hurts to send an email to verify that this is legitimate.
If you use an email-retrieving program, disable image previews. Email applications like Outlook, Thunderbird, and others often automatically load attachments for your convenience, but this takes away your ability to decide whether or not a file is safe to open. Check your preferences to disable this setting.
STEP 2
Be wary of files with a double extension such as .txt.vb or .jpg.exe. As a default setting, Windows often hides common file extensions, meaning that a program like Paint.exe will appear to you as simply Paint. Double extensions exploit this by hiding the second, dangerous extension and reassuring you with the first, safe extension – which is utterly meaningless to your computer; your system only recognizes the extension to the extreme right and run the file as such. If a common file type whose extension you never normally see suddenly becomes visible for no apparent reason, right-click on it, select Properties, and look for the complete file name. You may be surprised to find out what kind of extension it really has.
To make you file extensions visible, find Folder Options in your Control Panel. (Note that it may be tucked away in Appearance and Personalization or something to that effect.) Under the View tab, scroll down to Hide Extensions for Known File Types and make sure it is unselected.
STEP 3
Use USB drives with caution. Plugging someone else’s USB drive into your computer (or plugging your own into a computer at, say, an internet café) can spread an infection via the drive itself, not the file you’re actually trying to share. Whenever possible, transfer files between machines via email to keep potentially-infected hardware out of the equation.
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