
Norwescon is the pacific northwest's premier science fiction and fantasy convention.
First thing to do is check some of your vulnerbilities.
Shields UP! Is a good place to start. Here Steve Gibson of Gibson Research Corporation has placed some tools that will check out some of the more common security holes.
Use a firewall. Modern operating systems pretty much all have one built in these days. For more infomration:
If you want a few more bells and whistles there are third party apps
available, such as ZoneAlarm by
ZoneLabs.
There are are a mess of them out there. I use Kaspersky.
If you don't have one installed and you think you have a problem, or are uncertain of the results of the one you do have, I recommend House Call by Trend Micro.