For this to happen people must have confidence that their wallet cannot be emptied by some crook out on the net. So if I am running the Bitcoin software in the background, could a virus installed on my pc send a copy of my .bitcoin folder or wallet.dat to the crooks pc, who could then send all my coins to his own wallet thus stealing all my coins?
As a Newbie and not that techi, this is a concern I think many possible adopters will have. For example if I am tempted to install an animated wallpaper that happens to come with an unwanted payload designed to steal my .bitcoin folder. The wallet.dat that I think is the essential part is available unencrypted just begging to be stollen. Am I right? If not then thats a relief but if this is the case what would be the recommended procedure to protect your coins? I won't accept "don't install the wallpaper" as a fair answer.
