Wow. Do people really not have the simple common sense to have a virus checker running on their computers?
Yes, yes, the real and best answer is for Microsoft to plug these holes and keep them plugged. However, even if they do that, you can still run maliciaous programs that will do bad things. It is up to the user to be aware.
For your home, all you really need to do is get a cheap router and run your internet connection through it. This gives you a hardware firewall that will keep most of the hackers out.
Then run a decent virus protection program that has real time protection and do virus scan once a week. No big deal. Then, just don't be stupid and run something that you just downloaded from that game crack website without checking it first.
My provider actually gives you a free subscription to McAffee for all the computer accounts that you create.
I guess all of this is one reason that Vista includes that obnoxious "User Account Control" thingy that constantly asks you if you really want to run the program you just told to run. (You can disable this btw, makes for a much better experience)
Of course, I am a bit of a computer geek, so most of this is just common sense to me. As more an more ungeeky people get on the internet, we will see more and more of this kind of problem. Just pray that your Mac's don't get as popular as Windows. At that point, Macs will become just as much of a target as Windows is now (maybe a tougher nut to crack too, but it will get cracked).
Microsoft Security 
(just thought I'd add that as well)
