You can invoke the wrath of the darknets by using an unpatched pirated copy of Windows XP. Use Sygate Personal firewall to monitor data if you do not have the latest security updates.
If you do have a registered copy of Windows, there's Microsoft's antivirus that is free to download and use. Security Essentials is both lightweight & effective.
Use a secure password. Good passwords are not found in the dictionary. A good password is six to eight characters in length, comprising letters and numbers.
You can use Winzip to apply a password when compressing a folder. For some heavy-duty encryption, use the open source TrueCrypt from on Sourceforge.net.
Be careful of what you download and run on your computer, especially if you use it for e-commerce and Internet banking. Spyware and trojan viruses could steal your personal data and credit card details.
In this age of cheap terabyte drives, you have no excuse. Back up your data. It will save you time and money should your system be attacked. There are tools to automate this as well.
Exercise common sense. It might feel fine to have your birth date on Facebook, but since this is usually a security question used by most banks, you might want to keep it to yourself.
If you do feel that your computer is behaving odd, or compromised in any way, boot into Google's free Chromium OS, which now fits on a 1GB pen drive.
Hackers call phone skills and other soft methods of hacking social engineering. Be careful what you say on the phone, if you are speaking to a stranger.
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