<There are easy ways to be secure and complicated ways. You do not have to do the complicated ways unless you are doing online work only and sensitive online work at that. If you have some side lines or you communicate online only, you can go the simple route and secure yourself.
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Here are some basics:
1. Change your password frequently and make this as random as possible, mixing lower and upper case letters, numbers, and characters.
2. Do not leave financial information online. Use sites like Pay Pal to make payments. This is not linked to any credit card or bank account.
3. If you need to log in anywhere, log off on that site too when done.
4. Keep your firewalls and anti-spyware software regularly updated.
These simple steps are enough as a basic shield for safety when doing online work. Note that if you are doing more complex things, it would serve you best to invest in more heavy duty software and hardware for protection.