We live in a time of increasing digital insecurity.
As money, markets and data go digital, our lives can be turned upside down by
the slightest movements in the digital universe. Every other day, we hear
stories about how massive logistical systems fail in the face of cyberattacks.

Recent news about the Pegasus snooping scandal has shocked
the world. From journalists to human rights activists to heads of states, the
list featured big names from all over the world which were allegedly targetted,
and that to by government agencies.

Therefore, it is perfectly natural to be worried
about becoming a target of spyware. Legend has it that US Senator Angus King,
member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, once said that he got some advice
on how to keep his phone secure.

The first step, turn off your phone. The second,
turn it back on. That’s it.

Rebooting your phone regularly won’t stop cybercriminals
or spy-for-hire firms from snooping on you. But it can make even the most
sophisticated hackers sweat to maintain access and steal data from your phone.

“This is all about imposing cost on these malicious
actors, said Neil Ziring, technical director of the US-based National Security
Agency’s cybersecurity database, according to a report in The Indian Express.

Switching on and switching off your phone regularly
makes in untenable for malicious actors who sow chaos into our society and take
control over our private lives to consistently keep a check on you.

Last year, the NSA issued a “best practices” guide
for mobile device security. The guide recommends rebooting your phone regularly
as a way to stop hacking. Security researchers say people should restart their
phone once a week.

The advice to regularly reboot phones comes at a
time when hackers are deriving and deploying “zero-click” ways to hack into our
phones.

Once
hackers gain access into a network or a device, they look for ways to persist
in the system by installing malicious software to a device’s root file system.
But that has become more difficult over the years as manufacturers like Google and
Apple have come up with strong security to block malware from core operating
systems, say researchers.