The Prime Minister says we should turn our iPhones off each day

The Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has reiterated advice from the USA’s National Security Agency (NSA), encouraging us to turn out iPhones off regularly to stop hackers. Does the advice stack up?

As reported in The Guardian, the PM said:

“We all have a responsibility. 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.”

The reason is so that any malicious apps that might be running are purged from memory. That makes sense. If you’ve accidentally clicked a malicious link or visited a dodgy website, it’s possible that a malicious process is running. And with Apple recently patching macOS, iOS and iPadOS against vulnerabilities that have been exploited by criminals, it is possible that some malicious code might be running on a device.

Of course, this may only interrupt a hacker rather than stopping them completely. But adding that interruption can be all it takes for a hacker to move on to some other target. Many criminals are looking for easy targets so a reboot could be enough to thwart them.

The case for turning off your phone each day

Turning off your iPhone for a few minutes each day is probably not a massive inconvenience. The process for turning off your iPhone is:

1. Open the Settings app.
2. Tap on General and scroll down to Shut Down at the bottom of the list.
3. Drag the slider across your screen.

Note: These instructions are for iOS 16.

You can turn the iPhone back with the power button.

Alternately, you can create a Shortcut so you have a single button to press.

1. Open the Shortcut app on your iPhone.
2. Tap the + button on the top left of the screen.
3. Tap the Add Action button.
4. Search for Shut Down and select it.
5. At the top of the screen, tap on the dropdown menu to
   • choose an icon colour
   • rename the shortcut
   • add the icon to your Home Screen

If such a simple process can stop an attacker, then it seems like a pretty small inconvenience.

The case for not turning off your phone each day

While shutting down your iPhone each day (or weekly as the NSA suggests) the odds of most of us being targeted by hackers is quite small. So, the inconvenience, not matter how minor may not be worth the effort.

Apple’s Lockdown Mode

Apple has provided a heightened security level in iOS, iPadOS and macOS. Lockdown Mode adds a bunch of extra protections in case you’re worried about being attacked. This isn’t a mode that’s designed for most of us – it’s really focussed on protecting people such as politicians and journalists who might be specifically targeted by attackers.

The protections Lockdown Mode offers include:

• Messages: Most message attachment types other than images are blocked. Some features, like link previews, are disabled.
• Web browsing: Certain complex web technologies, like just-in-time (JIT) JavaScript compilation, are disabled unless the user excludes a trusted site from Lockdown Mode.
• Apple services: Incoming invitations and service requests, including FaceTime calls, are blocked if the user has not previously sent the initiator a call or request.
• FaceTime: Incoming FaceTime calls from people you have not previously called are blocked.
• Shared Albums: Shared albums will be removed from the Photos app, and new Shared albums invitations will be blocked.
• Wired connections with a computer or accessory are blocked when iPhone is locked.
• Configuration profiles cannot be installed, and the device cannot enroll into mobile device management (MDM), while Lockdown Mode is turned on.

If you are especially concerned about your device security, you can turn on Lockdown Mode by:

1. Open Settings app in iOS 16 (Lockdown Mode also works on iPadOS and macOS – just go to Settings or System Settings respectively)
2. Tap on Privacy & Security
3. Scroll all the ay to the bottom of the screen and tap Lockdown Mode
4. Tap on Turn On Lockdown Mode
5. Tap Turn On & Restart