Taking necessary steps to protect yourself from viruses, Trojans, spyware, etc is imperative. If you do not, you will be exposing yourself to all sorts of problems and threats. Some of the things discussed are common sense but others are not. For example, it is advantageous to use a secure proxy while you are browsing. This will allow all of your Internet traffic to travel via this proxy middle man. This way, you can keep yourself safe from hackers, and snoops that want to trace your whereabouts. I will discuss more about a ninja proxy that you can use later on.

Step 1 Make sure that your Windows firewall is set to enabled

There is no point in having a firewall installed if you are not going to use it. It is crucial to make sure that you use it and that it is enabled at all times. A firewall will give you a very basic protection against incoming threats but is still a useful tool to have installed.

Step 2 Ensure that a good antivirus package is installed

Having a good antivirus package installed on your computer that can combat threats is an absolute necessarily. Failure to do this will result in your computer or network becoming infected with all sorts of problems and you could end up having personal information like your credit card details, for example, stolen and abused. Also, make sure that you download regular updates for it so that you can keep up with all the new threats that appear on the Internet.

Step 3 Use a secure proxy for to protect you anonymity

If you want to stay invisible to websites and snoops then you should consider using a ninja proxy. This will allow you to remain anonymous to the outside world while you are browsing. The proxy will basically act as a middle man that sits between you and the Internet. All Internet traffic will be sent and received via this middle man. This means that while websites often track and log certain details about their visitors like IP address, browser type, MAC address etc, they will not be able to log any of your details as you are browsing behind a proxy. Only the details of the proxy site will be recorded, thus protecting your anonymity.

Step 4 Start using a product that offers encryption

Encryption is a powerful tool and is probably the ultimate number one when it comes to privacy. Using a product that offers encryption means that if anyone were to intercept the data being sent or received, they would not be able to make sense of it. Encryption jumbles all of the data up so that to human eyes it is meaningless. It is only when the data arrives at the computer location that is it decrypted so that the person at the desk can make sense of it. A product like this will not come cheap so you may have to fork out some cash if you want to buy one. Ideally, if you want maximum protection you could always use the ninja proxy in conjunction with a product the offers encryption.