paranoia is a good thing. Apart from not having personal stuff on a vulnerable computer, the other option is to do your best to make it hard (update software, run firewall, defensive router, etc) and discourage attackers. Keep an eye on vulnerability / exploits in the wild (plenty of sites list them in real time as they are found) and if it affects software you use, get the patch or don't use it until the patch is out if possible, and so on. A little bit of extra time spent keeping your stuff safe will make the odds of being hit much lower. It can still happen, but if you get hit, there is an 85% or so chance that you were hacked remotely (eg, someone stole your personal info from your insurance company, bank, school, etc) than locally (broke into your PC). Do the best you can on your local PC and try not to worry about it too much, and if you are still concerned, not having anything useful on your PC is still better -- they can't steal what isn't there.