A simple way to protect your smartphone from hacking

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The recent period has witnessed an escalation of piracy operations that affected many smartphones, which prompted many to search for ways and mechanisms to protect their phones. Cybersecurity specialists said that turning off and restarting the smartphone sabotages the plans of hackers.

At a time of widespread digital insecurity, it turns out that the oldest and simplest way to tackle computer problems, turning off the device and then turning it back on again, can thwart hackers’ plans and prevent them from stealing information from smartphones.

The report stated that turning off phones and restarting them regularly will not stop the attacks of hackers or spying companies, but it disturbs their work and pushes them to make more efforts to make their penetration successful.

The National Security Agency (NSA) released a best practices guide for mobile security last year, in which it recommended restarting the phone every week as a way to stop hacking.

Senator Angus King, a member of the Senate Secret Intelligence Committee, says he has reason to worry about hackers, and he was given this advice by cybersecurity professionals. Restarting his phone is now part of his routine, to keep his mobile phone safe, and he may do it once a week.

Users rarely turn off their smartphones, which have become a target for hackers to obtain personal and sensitive information, such as text messages, contacts, and photos, as well as track users' locations and even secretly turn on the camera and microphone.

Neil Ziering, technical director of the National Security Agency's Cyber ​​Security Directorate, usually, once hackers get into a device or network, they look for ways to install malware, but that is becoming more and more difficult. Phone manufacturers such as Apple and Google "have strong security to prevent malicious software from accessing their core operating systems, and it is very difficult for a hacker to succeed in penetration. If the hacker succeeded in installing malicious programs that are difficult to detect or track, such programs cannot survive by turning the phone off and back on.

According to the report, there is currently a strong market for hacking tools that can penetrate phones, and there are several companies that provide these tools, such as Zerodium and Crowd Fence.

It is reported that there is a proliferation of hacking companies for a fee, which sell mobile penetration services to governments and law enforcement agencies, and the most famous is the Israeli company NSO responsible for the Pegasus spy program, which caused a stir in the recent period.

According to the best practices guide for mobile security issued by the US National Security Agency, this method of turning the phone off and back on only works sometimes.