First: Many people think their computers are secure, Many trust windows defender to protect them.. Alas, on a protection scale of 10 where 10 is best, it is only about a one.
There are many good 3-rd party anti-mal-ware programs and firewalls out there, I actually will not tell you what I use (And recommend others also do not) for reasons of security but I can tell you Malware Bytes is one of the best Anti-Malware programs.. Others are AVG, and AVAST,,, Free versions can be found (though it may take some searching) on those. There are many firewalls as well, Some are more annoying (As they keep popping up warnings that need your attention) but, the more work, generally the better they are. ONE monitors both incoming and outgoing traffic.
These can prevent the infection.. Though to date nothing is 100% secure save for the scissors method (Cut the cord and do not go online) and that is not practical. And even that is not 100% (Some thumb drives and before them floppy discs came from the factory pre-infectred SONY put a Root Kit on it's CD's at one time (Man did they get fried for that one). and more.
