Ha, well, if it's easy to set up and easy to use, there's no reason not to. :-) 

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/29/news-views-gossip/my-unbelievable-ept-barcelona-story-hotel-rooms-arts-barcelona-broken-into-plant-trojans-1369171/

A good reminder. Now, in Jeans' case, the laptop might have been beyond salvage, regardless. Any time someone has tampered with your computer, you can't trust it in principle (but you might of course still choose to, if the risk is sufficiently low). 

But if Jeans' had had disk encryption and backup, he could have just tossed the laptop the moment he became aware someone had tampered with it, bought a new laptop and moved on. If he could have been 100% certain that someone hadn't tampered with it before the last time he used it, his data would be safe.

However, even with disk encryption, you are vulnerable to things like Evil Maid Attack, but that requires the Villain to get to your computer twice. First tamper with it, then you use it without suspecting anything, then he has to get to it again. So physical security is important, too.

The main purpose of disk encryption + backup for us average folks is to protect ourselves in case the computer is physically stolen, lost, or destroyed. You might need stricter security than that, though. If someone is really out to get your data, physical security must also be attended to. Basically, total control over who can physically access your computer between your logins (with very sensitive data on it, preferably none). You're fine if they just steal it and you lose it, but not if they can access it between your logins.

A high stakes player should be extremely cautious about physical computer security (as Jeans' story shows), whereas the rest of us are probably aren't very interesting targets (if some random guy targets your computer behind your back, he's probably just out to steal the computer, not setting up a sophisticated Evil-Maid-scheme for circumventing your encryption).

Honestly, someone playing the nosebleeds who wants reasonable computer security, they should probably hire someone to help them.  IT security is challenging enough that it's tough even for someone who thinks they know their way around computers to get it right!  It's easy to introduce unknown security holes even if you have the right products.  For normal players who are not expecting to be singled out as targets, basic things as antivirus, firewall(s) and backup should probably be ok.  Plus not to install unknown programs or click on unknown links.  Even if the link has a really pretty girl with almost no clothes!

In a previous life I did IT security for a living.  What it taught me is that if someone really REALLY wants to do things with your data, they probably can.  But you can make it fairly difficult for them, and hopefully that will make them choose another target.

The Art of Deception (Mitnick) is a pretty good text on social engineering for anyone interested in that topic.

O i loved the book :)

Virtual machines can be part of a more secure setup, but that alone doesn't make things automatically secure.  Depends on what you're seeking to protect though.  If the virtual pc is compromised, the poker clients (and money) may possibly be affected, but the Mac probably shouldn't be.