The prime minister of Australia on Friday urged everyone in the country to start turning their phone off for five minutes on a daily basis in an effort to combat cybersecurity risks. “We all have a responsibility,” Anthony Albanese said. “Simple things, turn your phone off every night for five minutes. For people watching this, do that every 24 hours, do it while you’re brushing your teeth or whatever you’re doing.” His advice echoes similar guidance previously issued by the National Security Agency (NSA) advising a weekly reboot of smartphones to minimize the risk of devices being hacked. A cybersecurity expert told The Guardian that shutting devices down forcibly stops apps and other processes running in the background of devices which may be monitoring their activity or collecting their data without the user realizing.
