basic steps to make my wp secure

hi,

What are THE BASICS that a beginner should do about his/her wp installation to make it secure. I am not asking about any advanced techniques and software and do realize there is probably no 100% safe solution; what I want is to avoid any simple mistakes and do as much as possible within the wp itself to protect my data. Does “BulletProof Security” help ?

if you could give me some sort of advice on wP settings & plugins that come in handy I will be most grateful.

I have recently received some phishing emails redirecting me to malicious software installed within different wp-content catalogues; I belive the site owners are quite unaware of this as the hacks have probably got installed there by themselves – I would like to avoid the similar issues with my wp installation, what could I do to minimize the risk ?

thank you!