The best info i`ve seen on security came from the chaos computer club in germany. They have info in english. They say that as there is NO security in the internet one needs to use PGP or something similar and then meet the person you want to comunicate with and give them a key. They have conferences and PGP key swap sessions.
"And in general, they are simply more secure than windows "
Thats not true from what i`ve read. In the last two years there were two hacker conferences where contestants were given windows , mac and linux systems to crack. The linux and macs were the first to be cracked. The reports also said that there had been tests wich showed that windows had much less holes in it than either macs or linux. The macs were the worst. The reports were on http://news.softpedia.com/ They also said that the reason why macs and linux dont gets hacked so much is because nobody uses them.
From what i`ve been told useing a http://www.backtrack-linux.org/ copy running from a DVD is a good strategy to avoid trouble and one can also do some cool tricks with it.
I use windows XPPRO SP3 with updates from http://www.sereby.org/site/xp integrated. Then i cut as much shit out of it with Nlite as i can. Then when i`ve got it running i cut more out with XPLite. I also use http://www.ntsvcfg.de/ntsvcfg_eng.html and then http://cmia.backtrace.org/index_en.html ( Both are in the ISO i`ve been touting ). On top of that i have a NAT router. That all coupled with acronis disk copys incase of emergencys.
I dont , never have and never will use my computer on a guest acount. I use the administrator acount. From my way of thinking if malware can get on a computer its on there and useing a diferent acount wont change it. By that i mean the acounts work inside the system so once malware is on the computer useing a guest acount is to late. A bit like closeing the stable door after the horse has bolted if you know what i mean. It would be diferent if the system ran inside an acount. Twas badly explained but your all intelligent enough to make sense of it i think.
Another thing i think is that anyone useing internet banking or haveing any secrets on their computer is naive and asking for trouble. I think its better to lean out of ones liveing room window with a megaphone and shout ones details to the bank than to send them over the internet. By that i mean that less people would have potential acsess to the details doing that and there is less chance of a hacker / criminal listening and noteing ones details that way to . Its easyer , safer and healthyer to just go to the bank. The world survived without internet banking for how long ? And how many people had how many bank problems before and after internet banking ? I have a 100 % safe banking strategy ........ i dont have a bank acount.....
From my way of thinking useing hushmail or proxys is a good way to draw attention to oneself and only at best gives a false sense of security.
"And in general, they are simply more secure than windows "
Thats not true from what i`ve read. In the last two years there were two hacker conferences where contestants were given windows , mac and linux systems to crack. The linux and macs were the first to be cracked. The reports also said that there had been tests wich showed that windows had much less holes in it than either macs or linux. The macs were the worst. The reports were on http://news.softpedia.com/ They also said that the reason why macs and linux dont gets hacked so much is because nobody uses them.
From what i`ve been told useing a http://www.backtrack-linux.org/ copy running from a DVD is a good strategy to avoid trouble and one can also do some cool tricks with it.
I use windows XPPRO SP3 with updates from http://www.sereby.org/site/xp integrated. Then i cut as much shit out of it with Nlite as i can. Then when i`ve got it running i cut more out with XPLite. I also use http://www.ntsvcfg.de/ntsvcfg_eng.html and then http://cmia.backtrace.org/index_en.html ( Both are in the ISO i`ve been touting ). On top of that i have a NAT router. That all coupled with acronis disk copys incase of emergencys.
I dont , never have and never will use my computer on a guest acount. I use the administrator acount. From my way of thinking if malware can get on a computer its on there and useing a diferent acount wont change it. By that i mean the acounts work inside the system so once malware is on the computer useing a guest acount is to late. A bit like closeing the stable door after the horse has bolted if you know what i mean. It would be diferent if the system ran inside an acount. Twas badly explained but your all intelligent enough to make sense of it i think.
Another thing i think is that anyone useing internet banking or haveing any secrets on their computer is naive and asking for trouble. I think its better to lean out of ones liveing room window with a megaphone and shout ones details to the bank than to send them over the internet. By that i mean that less people would have potential acsess to the details doing that and there is less chance of a hacker / criminal listening and noteing ones details that way to . Its easyer , safer and healthyer to just go to the bank. The world survived without internet banking for how long ? And how many people had how many bank problems before and after internet banking ? I have a 100 % safe banking strategy ........ i dont have a bank acount.....
From my way of thinking useing hushmail or proxys is a good way to draw attention to oneself and only at best gives a false sense of security.
The Chaos Computer Club is certainly a good source of information, they've been involved deeply in internet privacy issues for over a decade 
Some existing threads here about what's being discussed:
All that was done to find those links was to scroll down the thread menu in this forum 