Cyber Safety: Steps to Secure your Devices

December 14, 2022

As cybercrime continues to rise each year in Australia, taking additional, proactive steps to secure your devices against cybercriminals is no longer an option, but a necessity.

In addition to using emails, text messages and phone calls to trick unsuspecting individuals into opening attachments, visiting a website, or revealing login credentials; cybercriminals are now actively exploiting weaknesses in systems and applications to access and steal personal information. In fact, cybercriminals have become so highly skilled, they continue to successfully infiltrate the systems of major organisations such as Optus and Medibank, stealing highly confidential, personal data and selling it online.

You might be asking yourself, “If Optus and Medibank can get hacked, what chance do I stand?” The good news is you don’t need the resources of an entire IT department to protect yourself against cybercriminals. In fact, you can successfully secure your devices by following these practical, simple steps:

1. Update your devices with the latest software or operating system

Devices are often hacked by cybercriminals using known weaknesses in operating systems or applications. This is easy to avoid by ensuring your device software and applications are updated on a regular basis. Not only do updates provide new features and improvements, but they almost always provide upgrades that fix security flaws. It is important to update devices as soon as a new software update becomes available. This can be done automatically by simply turning on automatic updates in your device settings.

To turn on automatic updates, look at the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) step-by-step guides for:

2. Activate Two-Factor Authentication (2FA)

2FA improves your device security by acting as a ‘second key’ and proving you are the person requesting access. An example of a ‘second key’ is an SMS, prompting a unique password each time to you try to login to an online account.
This second key, or second-factor, makes it very difficult for cybercriminals to log into your account without your unique 2FA code. However, for 2FA to remain secure and unique to you, it must never be shared and treated like an important ID document. To reduce the likelihood of unauthorised access to your device or accounts, activate 2FA, starting with your most important accounts such as computer login and emails.

To activate 2FA, follow these guides for popular platforms:

3. Create Secure Login Credentials

In addition to two-factor authentication, a secure password can make a big different when protecting your data from cybercriminals. Cybersecurity experts recommend creating passphrases by using a combination of four or more random words. You can create a secure password by ensuring it contains these features:

· Combination of upper and lowercase characters.

· Combination of numbers and symbols.

· Is at least 14 characters in length.

· Is unpredictable and unique to each of your accounts.

For more tips on how to build strong Login Credentials, see the ACSC.

4. Setup Device Backups

In the worst-case scenario where your device has been hacked, and your data is lost, it can help to have a backup in place. A backup is a saved copy of the data stored on your device such as: files, images, documents and so on. It is usually backed-up on an online cloud, but it can also be saved to an external hard drive or device. Having a reliable backup in place means that critical files can be restored if your device is ever lost, stolen, or damaged.

To set up secure, automatic backups, read the ACSC guides for :

Apple Mac external storage backup and cloud backup.
Apple iPhone cloud backup.
Microsoft Windows 10 external storage backup and cloud backup.

For more information about cyber safety and fraud prevention, you can visit:

A Legacy of Learning Continues at Avila College

September 4, 2026

At the heart of Avila College’s Mount Waverley campus, a new learning space is taking shape - one that carries six decades of educational tradition into an exciting new chapter. The St Teresa Library was formally blessed and opened in July, marking the completion of the final stage of the College’s current master plan and creating a contemporary new hub designed to support learning, connection and opportunity for generations of Avila students. Supported by a $9 million CDF loan, the project represents a significant investment in the future of this Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools (MACS) secondary school for girls, which educates almost 1,100 students from Years 7 to 12. A Future Focused Heart for the College

The Invoice Looks Real. The Bank Details Aren't

August 25, 2026

Australians reported 481,523 scams in 2025 , with 274,577 reports involving financial losses totalling $2.18 billion . Behind those numbers are scams that are becoming increasingly difficult to spot. For organisations, one of the most convincing can begin with something as routine as an invoice. Invoice fraud is becoming increasingly sophisticated. The email may come from a supplier you know. The invoice may look exactly like previous ones. The amount is correct, the project is familiar, and the message may even sit inside a genuine email thread. The only thing that's changed is the bank account. That one change can redirect thousands of dollars into a cyber criminal's hands. How it happens Invoice fraud, also known as payment redirection fraud, is a common form of Business Email Compromise (BEC). Criminals gain access to a real email account - through phishing, stolen credentials, malware or a data breach - then quietly monitor it. They learn who approves payments, how invoicing cycles work, and wait for the right moment to intercept a genuine transaction and simply change the bank details. Because nothing else changes, it's very hard to spot. Example of What a Scam Looks Like

70 Years of Building, Serving and Growing: Celebrating CDF's Anniversary

By Hillaria Juliana • August 19, 2026

In 1956, a priest with a vision and a community with faith came together to solve a problem. Catholic schools across Melbourne were overflowing. Families were growing. Government funding for Catholic education was simply unavailable. And so Fr James Wall, later honoured with the title 'Father of the Funds', established what he called the Schools Provident Fund (SPF): a new way for the Catholic community to pool its resources, invest in its future, and care for one another. The very first school funded through that vision was Sacred Heart Parish Primary School in Preston, Victoria, which opened in 1957 and became an instant success, laying the framework for what would follow. The movement spread across Australia and New Zealand, growing from a solution for Catholic schools into a broader vehicle for funding parishes, hospitals, aged care and social services. Seventy years later, that vision is very much alive.

CDPF Limited, a company established by the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, has indemnified the Catholic Development Fund ABN 15 274 943 760 (the Fund) against any liability arising out of a claim by investors in the Fund. In practice, this means your investment is backed by the assets of the Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne. The Fund is required by law to make the following disclosure. Investment in the Fund is only intended to attract investors whose primary purpose for making their investment is to support the charitable purposes of the Fund. Investors’ funds will be used to generate a return to the Fund that will be applied to further the charitable works of the Archdiocese of Melbourne and the Dioceses of Sale and Bunbury. The Fund is not prudentially supervised by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority nor has it been examined or approved by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC). An investor in the Fund will not receive the benefit of the financial claims scheme or the depositor protection provisions in the Banking Act 1959 (Cth). The investments that the Fund offers are not subject to the usual protections for investors under the Corporations Act (Cth) or regulation by ASIC. Investors may be unable to get some or all of their money back when the investor expects or at all and investments in the Fund are not comparable to investments with banks, finance companies or fund managers. The Fund’s identification statement may be viewed here or by contacting the Fund. The Fund does not hold an Australian Financial Services Licence.