Summary
During a recent speech, an Australian politician told residents to shut their phones off for five minutes every day to help protect against cyber threats. Is this accurate advice? Here’s why the advice isn’t perfect, and why you should hesitate before trusting any cybersecurity advice a politician gives.
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Transcript
During a speech on cybersecurity last week, Australia’s Prime Minister told his citizens that they needed to be proactive in stopping cyber threats. As one example of a proactive step, he recommended shutting off your phone for five minutes daily. But does restarting your phone really keep you safe?
For Personal Tech Media, this is Two Minute Tech. I’m Jim Herman.
To be absolutely clear, there’s nothing wrong with restarting your phone. And restarting could eliminate a few types of malware that could operate on your phone. So if you follow this advice, it won’t be anything other than a minor inconvenience while you wait for your phone to restart.
However, the advice is a little confusing. There’s no reason why turning off your phone for five minutes is any better than doing it for one minute or ten minutes. There’s also no reason why it should be once per day and not twice per day or every other day.
Turning your phone off only protects you if the restart is able to clear malware off your device and if you restart the device quickly after the infection occurred. Many types of malware can persist even through a restart. And many of the ones that can’t are just used to get something onto your device that can last even when you restart your device.
Restarting your phone might provide some small security benefits, but it primarily provides a false sense of security.
If you want to do something for your phone’s security, here are a few steps. First, go through your phone’s apps and remove the ones you don’t need. Then, review your app privacy settings. And finally, make sure you protect your phone with a strong lock code.