how would you protect it??
Ok, let me spell it out .... don't be so stingy and buy an anti-virus license.
Otherwise the steps to protecting a trading computer are no different to the steps you should be following to protect any other computer. These are well documented.
But ultimately, for your average Joe, you need to remember the number one error message you see in relation to typical-user computer problems, namely:
"Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Chair"
In other words, don't be dumb:
• Don't click on stuff without reading what it says and thinking about it, even if
appeared to come from someone you know
• Don't run do your day-to-day computing running as Administrator (or user with Admin rights)
• Don't let other people use your computer (or, if you must, not as your user)
• Don't plug in USB sticks that aren't yours (or are yours but someone else has put stuff on).
• Keep *all* your software updated (and that includes obscure stuff like browser plugins and Java etc.).
etc. etc. etc.
But the problem is your average Joe doesn't have sufficient background in IT to "not be dumb" on a sufficiently consistent basis. And that's why we use all the well-documented safeguards (anti-virus etc) in order to protect the user against their own stupidity.
Remember, the computer is binary, its dumb, it executes commands ... the user is the source of all evil. Anyone who starts a request for help saying "I seem to have this virus on the computer" is pretty much always going to have been the person who put it there !!!
As the doctor says. Prevention is the best cure !
You are the human, anti-virus software etc. are the injections.... they don't always stop you getting the thing you are innoculated against, but they might make your symptoms less severe !
(Especially as the correct cure to a virus in IT is
ALWAYS reformat and start from scratch, because you can't trust that machine anymore)