Free cybersecurity checklist

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Your 10-step cybersecurity checklist

1. Turn on multi-factor authentication (MFA) for email, banking and key accounts. Start with your main email account, because the reset link for everything else lands there, and use an authenticator app rather than a text message where the service allows it.
2. Use strong, unique passwords — ideally with a password manager, which remembers them so every account can have a different one. Three random words is a good pattern for the few you must type.
3. Keep everything updated — Windows, browsers and apps. Let Windows Update run and restart when it asks, and replace software that has gone out of support, including Windows 10, which left support in October 2025.
4. Run proper protection — reputable antivirus and web protection on every device. Windows Security is a fair baseline; a paid product adds web and scam protection. One product, not two: two antivirus programs fight each other.
5. Back up your data automatically, with at least one off-site copy. A drive that is only plugged in when you remember is not a backup. Automate it, and try restoring a file once a year to prove it works.
6. Think before you click — be wary of unexpected links and attachments. Hover over a link to see where it really goes, and open an attachment you were not expecting only after checking with the sender by another route.
7. Check email senders carefully — scammers imitate people and brands you trust. Look at the actual address, not the display name, and remember that a bank, HMRC or a courier will not ask you to act within the hour.
8. Secure your Wi-Fi with a strong password and a separate guest network. Change the router’s own admin password too, and put smart TVs, doorbells and visitors on the guest network.
9. Lock your devices with a PIN, password or biometrics. Set the screen to lock after a few minutes, turn on Find My Device, and encrypt any laptop that leaves the house.
10. Have someone to ask — a real person to check ‘is this safe?’ before you act. Agree with family or staff that pausing to ask is always the right call, and never a nuisance.

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Every step above is included and managed as part of our support plans — alongside Malwarebytes Premium, monitoring and verified backups. See our cybersecurity page.