Staying safe online: a practical checklist

Reviewed by the Aries Portal editorial team · Last reviewed 21 September 2026

Software is one layer of staying safe; your habits are another, and often the stronger of the two. This final step gathers the guide into a practical routine anyone can follow, and points you to the Australian services that can help if something goes wrong. None of it requires technical skill, and most of it costs nothing.

If the earlier steps explained how protection works and what it defends against, this one is about the small, repeatable actions that do most of the work in practice. You do not need to do everything at once. Pick the habit that would help you most today — for many people that is turning on automatic backups or enabling multi-factor authentication — and add the others over the coming weeks. Security built up gradually and kept as a routine is far more durable than a burst of effort that fades. The checklist below is ordered roughly by how much protection each item tends to give for the effort involved.

A routine that covers most risk

• Keep everything updated. Turn on automatic updates for your operating system, browser and apps. Updates fix the security holes that malicious software relies on, so this one habit closes off a large share of risk.
• Use unique passphrases, stored in a password manager. A long passphrase for every important account, never reused, means one breach cannot unlock the rest. A password manager makes this practical rather than exhausting.
• Turn on multi-factor authentication. Where a service offers it — email, banking, social media — enable it. A stolen password alone then is not enough to get in.
• Back up your important files. Keep regular backups, with at least one copy separate from your computer. This protects you against ransomware, theft, hardware failure and mistakes at once.
• Think before you click. Treat unexpected messages that create urgency or ask for information or payment with suspicion, and verify through a channel you already trust.
• Keep protection switched on. Whether it is the built-in protection or a paid product, make sure real-time protection is active and updating. Running two full antivirus products at once can cause conflicts, so pick one.

Backups, in a little more detail

Because backups protect against so much at once, they are worth setting up properly rather than vaguely intending to. A widely used rule of thumb is to keep three copies of anything important: the original, a local backup (for example on an external drive), and one kept somewhere separate, such as a reputable cloud service or a drive stored away from the computer. The separate copy is what saves you if ransomware, theft or fire reaches everything in one place at once. Whatever method you choose, the two things that matter most are that it runs automatically, so you do not have to remember, and that you occasionally check it actually works by restoring a file. An untested backup has a habit of failing exactly when you finally need it, so a two-minute test now and then is time well spent.

What to do if something goes wrong

Even careful people run into trouble; the internet is designed by determined adversaries. If it happens, act calmly and use the free services set up for exactly this. Speed helps — changing a password or reporting a scam quickly can limit the damage — but panic does not.

Australian services worth bookmarking

These are real, free, government-run services. We refer to them throughout the site because they are authoritative and easy to verify — the opposite of a marketing claim.

• Australian Cyber Security CentrePractical security advice and incident reporting for individuals and small businesses.
• Scamwatch (National Anti-Scam Centre)Current scam warnings and a place to report scams; run by the ACCC.
• eSafety CommissionerHelp with online safety and abuse, with strong resources for families.
• Office of the Australian Information CommissionerYour privacy rights under the Privacy Act 1988 and how to make a complaint.
• Australian Competition and Consumer CommissionConsumer rights and protections, including under the Australian Consumer Law.

Securing your home network

Devices do not sit alone; they connect through your home router, and a few minutes spent there pays off. Change the router’s default administrator password to something long and unique, since the factory default is often printed in manuals anyone can find. Make sure your Wi-Fi uses modern encryption — WPA3 if your equipment supports it, or WPA2 otherwise — with a strong passphrase. Keep the router’s firmware updated, as manufacturers release fixes for it just as they do for computers, and if yours is many years old and no longer receiving updates, it may be time to replace it. If you run a guest network for visitors, it keeps their devices separate from yours, which is a sensible default.

Looking after phones and tablets

Mobile devices hold as much of our lives as computers now, and they deserve the same care. Install apps only from the official app stores, keep the operating system and apps updated, and review the permissions an app requests — a simple game rarely needs your contacts or location. Use a screen lock with a PIN, passcode or biometric, so a lost phone does not become an open door. Much of the malware advice on this site applies less to iPhones and iPads because of how their app stores work, but the habits around passwords, updates and cautious clicking matter on every device you own.

A rhythm to keep it up

Security is easier as a light routine than as an occasional panic. A workable rhythm looks like this: let updates install automatically as they arrive; once a month, glance at whether your backups are actually running and check for any security alerts on your important accounts; and once a year, review which accounts and subscriptions you still use, close the ones you do not, and confirm multi-factor authentication is on where it matters. None of this takes long once it is a habit, and it keeps you well ahead of the everyday risks described throughout this guide.

Bringing the guide together

You began with a simple worry — whether you need antivirus and how to choose it — and you now have a full picture: how the software works, what its features mean, which threats are worth planning for, a method for comparing products, a worked example, and a routine that protects you whatever you decide. If you choose to buy a product, buy it calmly and on the evidence. If you decide the built-in protection and good habits are enough for you, that is a perfectly sound choice too. Either way, you are making it yourself, which was the whole point.

If anything here was unclear or you spotted something we should correct, we would genuinely like to know — you can reach the editorial team from our contact page.