If you are a total noob, I think you will find wordpress easier to grasp right away, and updates and adding plugins are much easier than Joomla.
I think Joomla is easier to organize if you have a complicated site with lots of articles and a complicated link structure. If you just need a 5-10 page corporate website, or are blogging for fun, Joomla may be overkill, and Wordpress would be simpler.
Your site will get hacked on Joomla, too, if you don't keep up with security updates, especially with 3rd party plugins. So if you don't understand how to keep your site secure, use as few 3rd party plugins (or components) as possible because that is where the majority of the security leaks are found. On either cms. Whichever one you use, sign up for the security updates newslist in their forum, (they both have one) and do your updates as soon as you learn about a potential issue.
Also be careful where you download free themes for either cms and only get them from the official template site for that cms or on the website of the template author if they are well known and have a reliable reputation. Hidden or encrypted files in free themes often give hackers a backdoor to get into your site.
If you decide to stay with wordpress, install the I-themes security plugin and hide your admin area. And don't just use the easy getting started menu, click the Settings link and enable all that stuff too to block most ways hackers get into wordpress.
Joomla has similar security plugins that are free and go a long ways in securing your site.
I've used
http://cms 2 cms.com, too, migrating from joomla to wordpress, and also the other way wordpress to joomla, and I agree they are easy to use and not too expensive.