Unfortunately Cyber Crimes are increasing not decreasing.
This means we need to keep are guard up even more.
They say most intrusions into the computer come from user ignorance and curiosity
 Human nature is curious and trusting. Unfortunately this will get us into trouble.

1. Be suspicious of all requests originating from the Internet. This means instead of being trusting and curious, that we must be skeptical and distrusting until proven wrong.

2. Don’t open any…repeat any emails from anyone you don’t know. Regardless of how pitiful, imploring, interesting, or outrageous the subject happens to be.
Don’t forget the bad guys go where they will get the most clicks.
But  we still will click on a Facebook page or YouTube video that has an interesting, concerning, or imploring title, or open an interesting sounding email that is similarly encouraging us to open it and/or an attachment.

3. Stay abreast of the criminal threats you may encounter so you can avoid them as you use the Internet.

An example of being vulnerable:
One of many of the high risks out there is to do a search for various Celebrities.
Once again the bad guys think this is very popular, especially with young teens and will get a lot of hits.

Cameron Diaz is, at the moment, the most dangerous celebrity to search for on the Web, according to security company McAfee. The company researched popular culture’s most famous people to reveal the riskiest celebrity athletes, musicians, politicians, comedians and Hollywood stars on the Web:

 Cameron Diaz pictures and downloads yields a one in ten chance of landing on a malicious website. Fans searching for “Cameron Diaz” or “Cameron Diaz and downloads,” “Cameron Diaz and screen savers,” “Cameron Diaz and wallpaper,” “Cameron Diaz and photos” and “Cameron Diaz and videos” are at risk of running into online threats designed to steal personal information. When “Cameron Diaz and screensavers” was searched, 19 percent of the sites were identified as containing malicious downloads.

 Julia Roberts – The overall risk of searching for Roberts is nine percent, yet searching for “Julia Roberts and downloads” results in a 20 percent chance of downloading a photo, wallpaper or other file laden with malware.

Fed Ex
I personally received an email saying that Fed Ex had failed to deliver a package due to incorrect address. They wanted me to fill in the attached form and print it out and take to Fed Ex office.
I am sure if I opened the attachment I would have been infected.
We need to be aware, just as we are aware on the street in this day and age.

Security
Yes we all know we need an Antivirus and Antispyware for protection.

We also know there are updates for antivirus, anti spyware and Microsoft Software,

These are of utmost important.  It is not enough to have an antivirus program on the computer

It means nothing if it is not up to date .

We also know that Microsoft has patches that it advises us to install.

These are as important as the updates for the antivirus and antispware programs.

But we are not finished I’m afraid.

 There are other programs on your computer that can be vulnerable to attacks if not dealt with.

Two of the most vulnerable are Adobe Reader and Adobe Flash (The Adobe Flash Player is software for viewing animations and movies using computer programs such as a web browser. ...)

They have been targeted in the last 6 months and there have been a number of updates out there for them to patch the found vulnerabilities.

Why, because as we said the bad guys go for percentages and Adobe Reader and Adobe Flash are in nearly every computer .
 These are prime programs for cyber criminals, because they use percentages.   And Adobe is a high percentage shot.

This where Secunia comes in.
The Secunia PSI is a FREE security tool designed to detect vulnerable and out-dated programs and which expose your PC to attacks. Attacks exploiting vulnerable programs are rarely blocked by traditional anti-virus and are therefore increasingly "popular" among criminals.

The only solution to block this kind of attacks is to apply security updates, commonly referred to as patches. Patches are offered free-of-charge by most software vendors, however, finding all these patches is a tedious and time consuming task. Secunia automates this for us. It tells you when your programs require updating to stay secure.

Download Secunia from the link below. Then use its scan to check your computer and tell you which programs need to be updated.

This is a great help.  It gives you a link for each program which needs updating  and takes you to the exact, authentic page for the update, (not a wild chase from one page to another. In other words it will take you directly to the Adobe Reader update site for instance.)

Not only that but it will tell you if you have any obsolete programs in your computer.

I was told that my HP software was out of date and therefore had a vulnerability . This vulnerability could let someone into my computer. Secunia  took me directly  to the HP download page for this particular update and in two minutes I had downloaded it and was patched.

I highly recommend you add Secunia to your list of Security protection programs.
Below is the link.

http://download.cnet.com/Secunia-Personal-Software-Inspector/3000-2162_4-10717855.html

These are the Security Programs I have on my Computer.
AVG   (free)
Super Anti Spyware   (free)
Malware Bytes  (free)
Threat Fire  (free) (memory must be over 512mgs. best with OS Vista or OS Windows 7)
Secundia   (free)

How secure is your password?
http://www.labnol.org/internet/test-password-strength/17434/