Best & Easy way to secure WP sites?

Several of my sites were hacked (somehow my .htaccess file was affected, and was redirecting to .ru sites).
Although its no big deal to the site itself, i was able to fix it within minutes by replacing it with my 'clean' .htaccess file.

What's the best and easiest way to protect WP sites? I have read about plugins that help secure them, do they work well?
Whats your way of securing your sites? Thx

maybe you can find something interesting in this page

http://www.blackhatworld.com/blackh...t-secure-your-wp-bastards-noobs-not-only.html

I use some plugins (login lockdown + bbq) and they work well..and the most important thing you have to update all your plagins and the wp platform when updates are available...

I rarely updates plugins, platform, themes unless I REALLY have to. (Such as plugin wont work if i dont update).
I am afraid that by updating the 'theme' for example, it will cause some css issue that I customized awhile ago.
Any suggestions on this?