Quite curious if /u/fut- is making a guide for online security or what his method is.

Oh, infosec is actually my daytime job (and a long-time passion). Most of the advice in this thread is actually pretty solid!

If I had to identify several rules for a non-technical person to live by, I'd say it's important to:

• Keep all your software up-to-date.

• Minimize your attack surface. Don't install sketchy freebies, non-essential browser add-ons, etc. Avoid niche browsers, communication tools, oddball VPNs, etc - they receive very little scrutiny and can actually make you more vulnerable to attacks

• Don't fall for legit-looking but unexpected e-mails, pop-ups, and prompts. When in doubt, just leave the site you were on, do some web searches to understand what's going on, and maybe try again some time later. Don't click through browser security warnings unless you really know what's up.

• Use decent, unique passwords for every important site.

• If you are not a techie, use a web mail provider that can afford to hire a top-notch security team. If somebody hacks your primary e-mail, they can use the "forgot my password" functionality to recover most of your other accounts.

• Don't fall for scams. Question any unexpected e-mails and IMs, especially if there is an aura of urgency to them. When in doubt, call the sender and confirm.

• Don't use other people's computers to log into anything important.

• Be extra-paranoid when using public wifi.