Just recently a hacker injected a stealth trojan virus into my main windows 7 machine. The purpose of which is to stay undetected while lifting keystrokes and data for an extended period of time. If I was as paranoid as many in this movement I would blame big brother but the reality is that it's just as likely that it was some Chinese teenager trying to lift a Credit Card number for a new car or ps3. Luckily I don't keep anything on my machines that has monetary value.

The reason that whomever was successful wasn't because I didn't know how to protect myself, It was because I got complacent and didn't implement the security measures out of laziness. I took the last week reconfiguring my network and updating myself as to the latest tech. Not much has changed except that there are now many more hackers out there and that this trend will continue for the foreseeable future.
I'm not going to make this a long drawn out security write up because it likely won't help those that are unwilling to do their own research.

1. Windows can never be secured for the average man, stop pretending it can be.

2. Linux/BSD OS can be secured but lacks the windows functionality.

Here's where SmoothWall comes in, a Linux IPtables based firewall that sits in front of your windows machines. It's not that hard at all to set up and the best part is its FREE!! yes I'm serious. Most of you should have an old PC sitting around or know someone who does and thats all thats required along with two ethernet cards, one if the old PC has one already. If you don't have an old PC to spare but have technical ability you can use VMware or Virtual Box software to run a SmoothWall on your main PC provided its a dual core or better and you have again a second ethernet connection. The website to download, SmoothWall.org make sure to get the right version, 386 is for older 32bit PC likely what you'll want to use.

All you do is DL Smoothwall, burn it to CD , install it like any other operating system on your old PC, configure it, hook in your cable modem to one ethernet connection and your router to the other. If you get stuck try plugging the SW into a LAN slot instead of the normal WAN and you should be in business except for having to login to the SW GUI page using your IP address and port 81 or 441 in your browser.

Yea it sounds complicated for the non PC initiate but if you would just work on it for a few days you have nothing to lose and everything to gain security wise. An alternative is to just install Ubuntu as a second operating system on your PC. When you boot up you will be given a choice between windows and Ubuntu, very simple it's just like installing a regular program. Once you have Ubuntu up and running you click 'ubuntu software center' in the accessorys drop down menu, type firestarter into the search bar and install it. Configure it making sure to click propertys and confiigure that as well. Also its a good idea to install AppArmor, you install it and configure it from the terminal, takes a small bit of reading to get going correctly but adds a lot of security, just google it.

In windows the best firewalls are ZoneAlarm and Comodo, if you set them up correctly (allowing only whats critical and not clicking 'remember answer') you will have good security above most people. Also a great way to add a layer of physical security to your machine is TrueCrypt, It's is a very powerful encryption program that will encrypt your entire machine if you want it to(windows password does nothing for real security!). A good Idea is to put ALL documents, anything that has personal info into an encrypted file and keep it on a USB thumb drive or 2 for backup.

Honestly the system hates when people stop depending on large corporations and security firms to protect themselves. They lose control, they lose the ability to backdoor into your network, you stop having to pay for crap security software that leaves you vulnerable anyways. You learn valuable skills and can change with the times easily by yourself, Open source software is some of the best in the world, the system isn't going to tell you about it, they aren't going to tell you the new Ubuntu 11 is as good as Windows 7 if not lightyears ahead in many areas, corporations CAN'T make the big bucks on it so they don't make their software compatible to keep the average Joe from asking why he's paying $100 for an operating system, $50+ a year or more for security software, $100+ on office software and hundreds on any number of programs that are free on Linux ...

Break loose from their grip and take the time to try Linux, stop funding Bill Gates and the growing cyber security complex.