Just about everyone has private information that should be protected. Let’s begin with something you’ve surely heard of: antivirus protection.

But this isn’t enough to guard your personal data. A free antivirus service may not even update automatically, and this is very important to keep up with rapidly evolving technology. Your protection is worth the fee for Antivirus, a firewall, antiphishing software and antispyware.

When’s the last time you updated your browser? Hackers love old, outdated browsers. After you finish this article, update your browser and set your computer to automatically download any future update.

The same goes with your operating system. Update!

Don’t miss out on encryption, which scrambles data so that prying eyes can’t make sense of it. Your computer might already have the feature of encrypting folders, files or the whole disk. If not, you can get a third-party encryption program for free.

If your computer were to crash right this instant, how much data would you lose? You shouldn’t lose much if every day you back your data up on an external drive. Another option is a cloud-based storage system, which is encrypted. The fee for that may be $100 annually or less.

We all know that 123qwe is such an easy password to remember, especially if it’s for all gazillion of your accounts. You know whom else finds this very convenient? Hackers!

If it’s easy for you, it’s easy for them! Every account should have a unique password, and if this is too dizzying, then use a password manager. And choose long passwords that include various characters and exclude words that can be found in a dictionary or successive numbers/letters on a keyboard.

That wireless connection of yours is great—for your neighbor if he decides to get a free ride, or even hack into your data. A WPA2 encryption built into the router will protect you. With public WiFi, use a virtual private network like Hotspot Shield.

Your smartphone also needs protection with all the tools mentioned above, and that includes a VPN.