Online Security Blunders

Stating something like using "free software" causes security issues will panic to the standard user and gives the whole open source movement a bad name. I think more specifically software downloaded for free which shouldn't be free has a higher chance of being compromised with malicious software and programs. Programs with no obvious source of revenue stream (no donations, no free hosting, no referral commission etc) need to be questioned how they are making ends meet.

what does 7 even mean?

I think a lot of people are paranoid. I hate having to use a different password for everything because everyone has different rules about how long your password has to be and how alphanumeric it must be, as if my Dominos.com account must be protected at all costs. The bank gets a good password from me, that's it.

People need to keep in mind that only 10% of fraud (identity theft) happens over the Internet. The largest number of cases are caused by friends and family. The most expensive are caused by employees of yours or the staff where you shop and bank.

Playing off what Edward said, isn't it interesting how we get so many media scare reports, yet they rarely play up the likelihood of "trusted" people to commit various misdeeds? Instead we have a culture now where everyone fears strangers and non-friends (eg, neighbors you know but aren't close to) even though they have the least motive and opportunity for harming us. It's always "them" doing bad things, never "us."

In the fourth point I think you mean freeware, not free software. Free Software [1] is something else, intended to give back users control over their software and their computer.

[1] http://www.fsf.org/about/what-is-free-software