[Leon Della Bosca]

Anthony Albanese has issued a severe warning, telling Australians to safeguard themselves against escalating cybercrime threats by turning off their mobile devices for at least five minutes every 24 hours.

The PM wants Aussies turning off smart devices to be as habitual as brushing teeth before bed.

It’s everybody’s responsibility to defend themselves and others against cybercrime, said Mr Albanese

The old IT joke about ‘switching it off and switching it back on’ to fix tech issues can be profoundly effective in averting cyberattacks, say tech experts. Constantly running applications and processes in the background of devices provide an opening for cybercriminals to invade privacy and extract personal information, such as financial details, identification documents, or in extreme scenarios, your device’s camera.

Rebooting disrupts these operations, says Dr Priyadarsi Nanda, a cybersecurity expert at the University of Technology Sydney, who supports this recommendation.

It should be noted that this measure doesn’t make your device impervious to all cyber threats. Rebooting won’t necessarily help you in cases of stolen passwords or targeted attacks. Really, this advice is intended to decrease potential cybercrime vulnerability, not eradicate it completely.

How often do you turn off your phone?

[Couldabeen]

Of greater importance, is your Operating System (OS) up to date? The writers of the OS for both your mobile devices, be they a smart phone or a tablet, laptop or home computer are always looking at what nefarious software is being produced and disseminated in a bid to enter and obtain information from any and every devices that they can.
Every time we enter a website we are allowing the use of “cookies” that will be reporting back to the owners of that website that not only are you visiting, but what sites you visited earlier, what parts of their website you spent the most time browsing but also where you go next.
Frequently check with the supplier of your OS for security updates and general updates.
Is your OS the most recent version? If not. download and update as soon as possible and then get back to surfing and using your computer for your full use without fear.

[David Ryder]

Keeping your software up to date is very important but so is rebooting your hardware.
A daily reboot is a good idea.

[Allen Gilchrist]

I actually turn my phone off at 6 every evening and come Friday when it goes off it doesn’t come on again til Monday morning, as for what David Ryder says about rebooting your hardware daily this isn’t a good idea for a computer or laptop as each time it is turned on the electrical spike does a small bit of damage of the IC’s witch in turn shortens the life of the equipment, just make your system software and antivirus are up to date.

[Tood]

I wish I could switch Albo off 24 hours x 7 days!

[Kate2]

Ditto !!!

[Suze]

DITTO !!! HaHa Haah

[Author]

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