Recommendations and safety tips for products, sometimes, no matter how well-intentioned they are when they are sent, are not always completely accurate. In this post we will tell you about the status of some of the statements of the Prime Minister of Australia, who recommends “turning off the iPhone for 5 minutes every night”, in order to “avoid cyber risks”. Do you want to know what’s going on? We tell you!
Well-intentioned statements, but more than just a placebo
Away from political situations, from a purely technological point of view, every country wants to have security coverage in this field. From the most advanced IT infrastructures to the devices citizens use. This is why the Prime Minister of Australia, Anthony Albanese, recently made some statements that resonated in the media such as 9to5Mac.
“We all have a responsibility. Simple things, like turning off the phone every night for five minutes. If you see this, do it every 24 hours, whether it’s while you’re brushing your teeth, or whatever else you’re doing,” they reported from 9to5Mac.
The problem is that from a technological point of view, turning off your mobile phone for 5 minutes a day doesn’t solve much (to say practically nothing) when it comes to preventing cyberattacks. In the same way, in the case of an infected iPhone, turning it off will not delete the malware.
the context of these statements
Moderator 9to5Mac highlights the words of the Australian Prime Minister: “Albanese advice is based on evidence released by the US National Security Agency (NSA) in August 2020, But the NSA’s advice has been more specific and nuanced«. The NSA says that restarting the iPhone once a week can sometimes prevent attacks like phishing or no-click hacks. However, these threats are very specific, and usually target specific individuals or groups of individuals.
Given that NSA evidence talks about such sophisticated cyberattacks, turning off the iPhone “for five minutes every night,” unfortunately, won’t get them off our phones. In the same way, it is not prevented by carrying out this process.
Apple has its back
Apple has an extreme security mode on its devices, which is called Isolation mode. This function protects your iPhone, iPad or Mac from any interaction that may come from the outside, limiting the functionality of the device as much as possible. In fact, it focuses on blocking and stopping very sophisticated malicious attacks, among which is the one explained in 9to5Mac.
When this isolation mode starts, your iPhone limits its entire functioning. Messages, Internet browsing, FaceTime calls, Apple services, iPhone connections to a PC or Mac, and configuration profiles will be restricted. Of course, this isolation mode is an extreme case, and it should only be used if we detect that something is wrong with our iPhone.
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