Antivirus, explained one step at a time

Who this course is written for

This course is for the person who has just been asked, at a shop counter or in a renewal email, whether they want antivirus, and who would like to answer that question themselves. It assumes no technical background. If you know how to install an app and change a setting, you already have everything you need.

It is also for people helping someone else: a parent setting up a laptop for a teenager, or an adult child looking after a relative's computer.

The lessons are general information for households, not professional advice for businesses or organisations.

The seven lessons, in the order we suggest

The order is deliberate: what the software does, then what you already have, and only then whether to add anything.

1. What antivirus actually does

   The jobs antivirus software performs, explained without jargon, and the jobs it was never designed to do.

2. The protection your device already has

   What comes with Windows, macOS, Android and iPhone, and how to check that it is switched on.

3. Deciding whether you need more

   A set of plain questions that help you work out whether a separate product would add anything for you.

4. Comparing the kinds of option

   Built-in tools, free products, single-device antivirus and wider suites, side by side, with the questions to ask of each.

5. Installing and removing safely

   How to get software from the right place, avoid running two products at once, and remove one cleanly.

6. Fake virus alerts and support scams

   How genuine security messages differ from the pop-ups and phone calls that only imitate them.

7. Subscriptions, renewals and your rights

   Reading the terms before you pay, managing automatic renewal, and where consumer law in New Zealand fits in.

The short version, if you only have a minute

Antivirus software looks for known harmful programs and suspicious behaviour on a device, and stops or removes what it finds. It is one layer of protection among several. It works best on a device whose operating system and apps are kept up to date, whose owner uses strong and different passwords, and whose important files are backed up somewhere else.

Antivirus is also not the same thing as protection from scams. A great deal of online fraud works by persuading a person to do something, such as reading out a code or paying an invoice, and no software can fully guard against a convincing request. Lesson six is about exactly that.

Five habits that matter whatever you decide

These come from the general guidance that New Zealand's National Cyber Security Centre publishes for households on its Own Your Online site. None of them requires buying anything.

• Turn on automatic updates for your operating system and apps, and restart when asked.
• Use a different password for each important account, and a password manager if remembering them is a problem.
• Turn on two-step verification for email, banking and social media accounts that offer it.
• Keep a copy of photos and documents somewhere other than the device itself.
• Pause before acting on any message that asks for money, codes or remote access, however official it looks.

These habits support whatever protection you choose, and none of them costs anything.

Where a paid product fits in this course

Lesson four compares the broad kinds of protection available: what is built into your device, free products, paid antivirus for one device and wider security suites. Within that lesson we name one paid product, Norton AntiVirus Plus, which is the product this site has a commercial arrangement with.

We keep our description of it short on purpose. The only product information available to us is a brief listing from the affiliate network, which says it is an antivirus product. We do not repeat claims about its features, the devices it supports, its price or its terms, because we cannot check them. Those details belong on the vendor's own website, where they can be kept current.

There is no reason to decide today. A choice made after reading the terms is a better one.

Where to get help in New Zealand

If something has already gone wrong, or you would like advice from someone other than a seller, these organisations are a good place to begin.

• National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC): the government agency that leads New Zealand's work on cyber security and takes reports of cyber security incidents. Its household guidance is published on Own Your Online.
• Netsafe: an independent, not-for-profit online safety organisation that offers help with scams, online harm and staying safe online.
• Consumer Protection: the government's consumer information service, part of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, explaining your rights when you buy goods and services.
• Commerce Commission: the regulator that enforces the Fair Trading Act, including the rules against misleading claims by businesses.
• Office of the Privacy Commissioner: the body that oversees the Privacy Act 2020 and handles privacy complaints.

If money has been taken from your bank account, contact your bank first, using the number on its website or the back of your card.

How this site is put together

Vertex Portal is written by the BIEN CHEZ SOI PLOMBERIE editorial team. We are not a security laboratory and we do not run tests of our own, so you will not find scores, rankings or star ratings here. Where we state a fact about the law or about how a device works, we link to the organisation that published it, so you can read the source yourself. Our About page explains how we decide what to cover.

The site sets no cookies, loads nothing from other companies' servers, and has no forms. If you would like to tell us about a mistake, email info@vertexportal.online.