Are your phones and other mobile devices - and the large amounts of personal, private, identifying data and information they increasingly contain - the new high-value targets of choice for today's hackers and cyber-villains?  

Statistics definitely seem to point clearly in that direction.
http://franklinmcmahon.com/2013/03/07/android-mobile-virus-and-malware-up-to-79-in-2012-96-in-last-quarter/

Kerio (Free) Version for Home Users is widely known for its robust incoming and outgoing protection, while providing perhaps one of the most user-friendly, easy to configure and manage interfaces of offerings in its field (Firewall / Internet Security Apps).

Here's a very good, thorough & informative review of its features and functions:
http://www.melbpc.org.au/pcupdate/2304/2304article10.htm

 Basic Backup Tips Here
There is a wide variety of methods, mechanisms, and modalities by which you can back up and safely & securely store your personal or business data.  Locally, remotely, automatically, manually, and on and on, but one thing remains consistent across them all - no matter how, when, and to where/what you choose to do it, there are going to be a significant number of potential failure points that can plague your backup routine. We'll discuss those possible failures or insufficiencies - and how to avoid them - next.

Theft/Loss Insurance . . Despite all the various strategies we have discussed here recently regarding keeping your computer running cleanly, safely, & securely protected against a virtual panoply of existential threats, security breaches and malicious - often stealthy - intrusions, like the war that many governments constantly wage on terror, in order to remain free from damage or loss, we must be successful in defending against all the threats 100% of the time, but all the hackers, phishers, attackers need in order to be able to claim a significant degree of success in perpetrating their attacks against us can be as little as a single successful operation.

But while we may or may not always succeed in perfectly protecting our precious, critical data and media from being soft targets for those who would lay claim to them (not to mention the plethora of other, technological or physical catastrophes that can occur on their own), we can at least take what can be considered essentially foolproof measures to avoid ending up having lost valuable, irreplaceable data due to the damage inflicted by viruses, worms, trojans, rootkits, hacktools, cyber-thieves, etc. - and this is by planning and implementing a conscientious and comprehensive program of backing up all the files, records, photos, music, videos, what have you, that we feel we cannot - or would prefer not to - live without. And those measures consist, in large part, of ensuring that our important data is regularly backed up to a second, inaccessible (to the malefactors) location.

So backing up our data - exactly what that data comprises as well as precisely what we can do to ensure that we do it properly, reliably, and thoroughly - is what we are going to discuss next.  

Some of my Basic Backup Tips Here.

http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-firewall.htm

But even with all the aforementioned security and maintenance measures we've discussed here in this blog, for a variety of reasons, some of you may still feel a need to ratchet your security scenarios up a level or two.  If this is you, then you are probably a candidate for a Personal Firewall software application.  Here is a decent comparison shopping review of some of the best, most popular Firewall applications on the market:  http://personal-firewall-software-review.toptenreviews.com/  Several of them do offer, less than fully featured, but still useful, free versions for non-business use.

Further to my previous posting regarding the cleaning, purging, exfoliating, debridement, and sanitizing of your computer's operating system, sometimes, at various points along the way in that process, you may come upon files or folders that you want to delete but are told you do not have access or authority to delete them.  This can be aggravating, but don't worry!  Just download and install Unlocker 64bit (http://download.cnet.com/Unlocker-64-bit/3000-2094_4-11893280.html)  or
the 32bit version if that is the type of operating system you've got: (http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/System-Miscellaneous/Unlocker.shtml).

With Unlocker, you can regain control over the files in your own computer and delete just about whatever you might want to delete - without needing anybody's (or anything's) authorization or consent, which you would not likely receive in any case.

Before going to the considerable effort to thoroughly scan and purge your system of any lurking malware, i recommend first doing a thorough cleaning by using windows own disk cleanup tools, your browsers' temp/cookies/history/cache cleanup utilities, and then finally a rigorous scrubbing and optimizing with CCleaner (http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/download). these steps will make it much easier and faster for your malware scanners to run and efficiently complete their detection, identification, and removal operations. http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/download

another thing to consider doing as a part of a comprehensive system cleaning would be to delete all system restore points (malware & viruses often harbor stealthily in there and get back into your system that way after being initially removed), turn off system restore (this completely flushes all the restore point cache/history), and afterward re-enable system restore so that it will once again begin creating automatic restore points for your system - it can be quite useful as long as your restore points are not infected.

Aside from a good antivirus software application, you should also keep at least 1 or 2 anti-malware / anti-spyware apps installed and running.  Here are two of my favorites, as well as one of my favorite sites for safely downloading them:
SuperAntiSpyware

MalwareBytes

Another important point in helping to ensure that your machine is clean, safe, & free of viruses, malware, hacktools, etc is to make sure you have the appropriate layers of security software installed, updated and running regularly to ferret out malicious intruders who may be lurking within your system.