Well I can try to answer one of your questions, which would be the one about being "hacked." Personally, I don't think you have very much to worry about. You are assigned a different IP address every time you log on, and so it would be kind of difficult to keep track of you, or should I say impossible. Once you upgrade to a high-speed connection, that is when you will have to worry a bit more. But if you are really that paranoid there is a free firewall that is fairly easy to use available at zonelabs.com.