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In today's climate of hacking, perceived terror attacks and the rise in cyber crime, I would urge everyone to ensure their I.T. equipment is as secure as possible.
You also need to be vigilant to 'social engineering' attacks. This is not an attack on actual hardware but a psychological tactic aimed at fooling people into giving away information. A bit like a fraudster phoning a hospital claiming to be a doctor and insisting the receptionist provide "Fred Bloggs" medical information NOW as he's been in an accident. If the receptionist then provides personal information, this is not a fault of the computer system but the fact security has been bypassed by social engineering. This happens a lot online, whether by persons unknown claiming your help is required in order to smuggle millions of dollars out of Nigeria, in exchange for a 10% cut - only problem is that you need to provide your bank account details in advance.... or by various 'phishing' scams whereby a genuine looking email is received, claiming to be from your bank (or other reputable source) and asking you to confirm some piece of information, providing a suitable login for you to check your details - only the login is on the scammers site, carefully designed to imitate a clone of your bank....
See also my cryptography and privacy pages.
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