In a recent recommendation, security firm Dilation Effect advised cryptocurrency investors to reboot their phones once a week. This simple action can potentially disrupt hackers' activities and make their attacks more noticeable to victims.
The US National Security Agency (NSA) has also issued a security alert advising users to reboot (the process of turning off and on again) their mobile phones once a week. So what does this seemingly small action do to prevent attacks? Dilation Effect published an analysis.
Dilation Effect believes that restarting your phone weekly is a necessary action and recommends users make it a habit. This is because attacks on mobile phones are usually carried out via text messages or browsers. If a phone is successfully hacked and a Trojan is planted in the process, restarting the phone may disrupt the Trojan's activities.
After the phone reboots, if the Trojan horse wants to remain active, the hacker must either master the vulnerability of the mobile phone system's secure boot or re-execute the attack code exploit. If the attacker needs to re-run the attack, this may be noticed by the victim.
So, after the phone reboots, if there is no secure boot vulnerability, re-run the malicious app in question if the hacker still wants to attack you. According to experts, secure boot vulnerabilities are very rare, so it makes sense to reboot your phone after using it for a while.
In addition to the weekly reboot, Dilation Effect also recommends iPhone users to turn off iMessage functionality permanently. This could potentially add another layer of security and further protect users from potential threats.
*This is not investment advice.