The best protection consists of setting up and maintaining layers of security on your devices: keeping your operating system, browsers, and software updated, paying for decent but not overbearing antivirus and malware protection, installing browser extensions for Web privacy and security, and adopting smart security habits.
This has been borrowed from https://thewirecutter.com/blog/internet-security-layers/.
A brief outline follows:
- Keep your OS, browser, Java, and other software up-to-date.
- Use anti-virus software, Malware Defenders, Windows Defender, MS Security Essentials, etc.
- uBlock Origin is helpful according to customers, HTTPS Everywhere, some sort of password manager (LastPass), and Campus VPN.
- Treat links and files in email and social media as guilty until proven innocent. If it’s a shortened link, use GetLinkInfo.com to see what it expands to. No site should ever ask you, in an email or a direct message, to enter your existing password to deal with an account or security issue.
- Enable two-factor authentication (2FA) on everything you can.