Secure your data

Does antivirus or firewalls block the spyware activities on our computer?

There is no such thing as being 100% secure online. but with that said you can take some steps to minimize your risk.

with that said... anti-virus programs do block a lot of junk but they can't stop everything (the only anti-virus i use is the default one in Windows 10. but i am pretty careful on what i do on my computer/online to minimize my risks). you might want to consider using a free program like https://voodooshield.com/ which stops everything from running that you don't allow (it works different from anti-virus programs). that's better than anti-virus programs etc in some ways as anti-virus programs look for certain things to try to block where as a program like voodooshield just assumes everything that you did not allow when initially setting up the program is bad and stops it from running. so if you happen to go to a compromised website that tries to install something without your permission it will block it automatically where as a anti-virus might miss it.

but with voodooshield it assumes your PC is already in good running order since if your already infected with junk it won't block that. but once you set it up so it learns what programs you use etc it will then automatically block everything you don't specifically allow as even if you download a program to update a current program (like something that's a normal action) it will block that when it's turned ON (to fix that issue i just temporarily disable voodooshield and install the update and then turn it back on). about the only thing going against voodooshield is it does require some configuration from time to time but for the most part once you get past it's initial training phase (i.e. which teaches the voodooshield programs what you generally use) it's decent enough.

https://www.malwarebytes.com/ (EDIT: they just released v3.0 of the program which has faster scanning etc) ; just get the free one as that's a pretty common/popular program for checking your computer for malware and the like.

also, i don't really worry about firewall stuff much as the default one in Windows is alright enough. also, if you got a router that's even better as it's a hardware firewall unlike the one in windows which is software. hardware firewalls are not a lot more secure, but it is a bit more secure.

I’m very much confused and afraid to do the online transactions after knowing the truth.

assuming your computer is not compromised... all you really need to pay attention to when ordering something online is whether the connection is secure or not (that and stick to known websites with good reputations when ordering stuff). basically a HTTPS connection means it's secure while HTTP means it's not secure. basically it will generally show the lock sign etc when the connection is secure. if the connection is secure your safe (i.e. someone is not going to steal the info you transmit in that connection as it's only your computer and the destination that will see it) assuming your computer is not compromised from some random virus etc already.

i would not worry too much. just be careful on what you do and allow to run on your computer and chances are you will be fine ;)

another thing... it's even a bit more secure to use things like paypal when possible to pay for things online as there is less risk of your credit card info getting into the wrong hands simply because if you use paypal to pay for something, for the websites that support it, the place your buying from will never see your credit card number. so even if that site you order from somehow gets compromised/hacked in the future they can't get your credit card info. places like Ebay work with paypal (i.e. https://www.paypal.com/ ; these guys store your credit card info ). at least a couple of the sites i use support paypal transactions which is convenient.

a quote from that link you posted...

Don’t Use Obvious Passwords for Banking Information

Online hackers often use online bank accounts to access a person’s data and their finances. Try to use complex passwords when creating your accounts, and remember to never store your banking password information on your computer. This can ensure that additional level of protection.

assuming your computer is not already compromised your best off using one of those free password managers for all of your websites as it can generate random/secure passwords (i would recommend at least 16 characters minimum of random numbers/letters/symbols etc but going a bit more would not hurt if the website allows it) that no one will guess and you just simply copy and paste the password etc info into a website you want to log into.

but where that article says... "never store banking password info on your computer" ; my counter to that is... even if you did not store your password info on your computer at all in one of those free password manager programs if someone happens to have a key logger installed on your computer it's not going to really matter if that's there or not since when you attempt to log into your banking website it can log the keystrokes and possibly send that info to the hacker. but generally speaking... just be careful on what you do on your computer (i.e. keeps virus risk etc at a minimum on this alone which is your best line of defense) and use a password managing program for your websites/banking stuff and you will be fine.

and another thing to be more secure... never use the same password for multiple websites (but if you use a password manager you ain't got to worry about this since it generate random passwords for each site you log into). the reason that's more secure is simply because if somehow one of your passwords was compromised (or guessed etc) if you got different passwords they can't simply use that on other websites you may have accounts on so the damage is limited to just that one site. but if you used one password for all of your stuff (like Facebook/banking etc etc) then if they get a hold of that one password a lot more stuff could be compromised and fast.

p.s. the password manager i use is... https://pwsafe.org/ ; you just have to remember one master password to access the stored info (which you yourself make when setting it up) which is encrypted in a small file on your computer. but obviously make sure your master password is secure (like use some letters/numbers and some symbols) and not something easy to guess otherwise it sorta defeats the purpose of using that password manager since if they somehow got a hold of that encrypted database file 'password safe' makes then everything in there is available to them. that stores all of the websites i have username/passwords on into one secure file locally on your computer. like i don't even know my passwords to all of the sites i use as when i log into a website i just use the copy/paste function of that program. also, if you use this i would have a backup copy of your database onto say a external drive like a USB thumb drive as this way if your computer crashes or hard drive dies you still got a copy of all of your password info on that usb drive for a backup.

side note... speaking of backing up that password database, i strongly recommend anything you can't afford to lose on your computer (like say family photos etc) you make at least one backup copy of the data on a external device (so in other words... you would have at least two copies minimum of your important data). so if your main computers hard drive dies you won't lose everything. sadly, a lot of people don't take this seriously until it happens to them thinking somehow someone can magically get their photos etc back (which typically they cannot) and it's not all that uncommon for it to happen simply because a computers hard drive is one of the most common things to fail in a computer if something physically goes wrong with it and in case you did not know, the computers hard drive is where all of your data is stored like family photos on your computer etc. even with the two copies thing... which it definitely helps, if you had say two copies of your data on internal hard drives and somehow you got a virus etc on your computer you could potentially still lose everything which is why it's best to have another copy of your important data externally so if something acts up on your computer out of no where you will still have that data on a functioning external hard drive etc.

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I recommend that you use Kaspersky Internet Security.
It is about as close to absolute protection that you can get with
a consumer product for the Microsoft Windows platform.

While it is not absolutely bulletproof against Russian Hackers
and United States Ethical Hackers, it is as close to
absolute protection as you can get.

Other things you can do are go into settings and disable your remote desktop
and disable automatic updates. Automatic updates open up a back door
that hackers can very easily exploit.

If you don't absolutely have to have Java then don't install it.
Java is a major security weakness on Windows computers.

There is a huge learning curve to setting up Kaspersky Internet Security
to where it won't completely shut down your internet connection.
But don't let that intimidate you, it is still a pretty good product.