Whether on our own computers or those of our friends and family, we've all witnessed the damaging effects of malware. While variants such as the Stuxnet worm and its recent spinoff Gauss have helped propel media coverage of malware to new heights, such specialized attacks pose little risk to the average computer user.

However, there are many real world threats, as demonstrated by the continual influx of threads seeking assistance from our in-house malware experts. This week, we want to know if you've suffered at the hands of malware in the past year. If so, how did you resolve it? If not, what do you use to keep your system safe?

Malware image from Shutterstock