If file sharing is enabled, you need to protect it from unauthorized attacks. Microsoft recommends that anyone with File and Print sharing enabled and using share level access on a Windows 9x or Windows Me system must install patch which is available at Microsoft’s site. Disabling Java/JavaScript/ActiveX in your web browser Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer have options to customize and tighten browser security to disable Java, JavaScript and ActiveX scripting especially when you are browsing unfamiliar or untrusted sites. By doing this, you are defending your PC against threat associated to mobile code . 

To disable Java/JavaScript In Nestcape Navigator go to Edit -- Preferences--Advanced--Disable Java/JavaScript To disable ActiveX In Internet Explorer go to View----Internet Options-----choose to disable Active X In addition, some anti-virus also has protections against Java/JavaScript/ActiveX such as Norton Anti-Virus and McAfee Anti-Virus which offer some level of Java/ActiveX protection. Disable scripting features in e-mail programs. Many e-mail programs, such as Microsoft Outlook use the same code as web browsers to display HTML. Thus the vulnerabilities that affect ActiveX, Java, and JavaScript are often applicable to e-mail programs as well. Therefore, users are also advised to disable these features in their e-mail programs. In addition, users may also benefit by removing Windows Scripting Host from their Windows environment especially to protect against the VBSscript worm. To do this in Windows 9x, go to 'Control Panel' and choose 'Add/Remove Programs'. Click on the 'Windows Setup' tab and double click on 'Accessories'. Scroll down to 'Windows Script Host' and uncheck it and choose 'OK'. It may be necessary to reboot the system. 

Make regular backups 

It is important to make regular back ups of important files and data in case your computer is compromised or damaged. A safe practice is to always keep a copy of important files on removable media such as ZIP disks or recordable CD-ROM disks (CD-R or CD-RW disks). Use software backup tools if available, and store the backup disks somewhere away from the computer. From my review, the current Ghost program, version 6.5, provides many useful utilities to help protect valuable PC system. It has a utility that creates bootable diskettes that can include drivers for network cards, CD drives, writeable CD drives, and USB ports. Another important utility is Ghost Explorer that allows you to search files on an image created by Ghost and even extract files from that image. Generally, this is a very cheap and easy way to backup your system. 10 Always keep an emergency boot disk. We have seen some incidents where a home user's PC infected with a boot sector virus and the victim does not have an emergency boot disk for recovery. Thus, it is wise to keep an emergency boot disk in case your computer is damaged such as by virus attacks (commonly boot sector viruses) or hard disk failure. Creating a boot disk on a floppy disk will help when recovering a computer after such an incident. Remember, however, you must create this disk before you have a security incident. 

Conclusion 

Home users should realize that their home PCs are no longer secured in the privacy of their homes. Every home user should be aware and concerned of the ever growing number of threats associated to their home PCs. Nevertheless, incidents attributed to these threats can be minimized with proper countermeasures and safe practices by home users themselves. A combination of various countermeasures can achieve the purpose of defense in depth, the ultimate defense for maximum security. Leaving the job to an anti-virus alone is not sufficient, it should be combined with good personal firewalls and safe email practices for defense in depth. Eventually, knowing all the threats and taking proper countermeasures can serve the ultimate goal of the objective of this research  which is to minimize security incidents associated to these threats to the lowest level as possible with proper countermeasures and defense mechanism.