Keeping your computer safe in a hostile environment (the internet)

There was a time, not that long ago, where you could be pretty safe from viruses just by being careful where you got your floppies from, and maybe it would be good if you ran a virus scan once a month.

Those days are long gone.

Today if you are not very strongly and proactively defending your computer, there are thousands of people out there who will happily co-opt it for any number of illegal, immoral, or other purposes. Then again, they might just decide to steal all your personal information, and then trash your system completely, just for the fun of it
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Backup, backup, backup, or regret, regret, regret it!

Computers are absolutely wonderful tools. What would we do without them? They help store and organize vast amounts of data, but just how secure is that data? When was the last time you backed up your computer? When was the last time you backed up your crucial data? How much can you afford to loose? Do you have a backup strategy? Do you follow it?
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Passwords are NOT optional

Passwords, don't you hate them? Passwords are a pain, how do you keep track of them? Do they do any good? Why even bother. This is another one of the those things that even three or four years ago you could have let slide, but not anymore, passwords are one of the most important things to keep straight if you want to not become another statistic in the growing list of identity fraud.
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