There is a new virus/worm that is causing havoc on over 9 million PC's world wide, with most of the troubled computers have European, Aisian and Middle Eastern owners. “Downadup,” “Kido,” and “Conficker” have earned serious attention in the security departments for theft of network passwords from the computer systems of large companies, educational and public institutions. Most of the issues come from a lack of updates in older computers because this security issue comes from an exploit of Windows, of which Microsoft issued a "fix" back in October of 2008.

Windows updates should safe guard the average PC from most troublesome software issues, however, this new threat comes from external devices as well.

I recommend getting an anti virus solution such as Bit Defender which offers an excellent free service for scanning your PC, and an even better full service protection product. Use some sort of scan to ensure that your portable storage devices do not carry or infect your computers, especially if you use your device at work, school or in public places.