You should always consider that your data is always a quick hack away from being compromised. That being said, you might want to employ various tools for encryption, such as GnuPG, which lets you encrypt and decrypt files and much more. One problem with GnuPG is that some users don’t want to mess with the command line. If that’s the case, you can turn to a desktop file manager. Many Linux desktops include the ability to easily encrypt or decrypt files, and if that capability is not built in, it’s easy to add.