The NSA has a simple trick to keep hackers away from your phone: An old fashioned reboot

Ever since smartphones began to gain major popularity, there have been concerns about the devices’ security measures and how easy it might be for hackers to access your device.

Over the years, we’ve seen that mobile hacking is definitely something that we need to think about, with companies selling hacks to governments and intelligence agencies alongside possible other, less trustworthy organizations.

It turns out that one of the best ways to help avoid potential hacks is to regularly reboot your phone. While rebooting your phone regularly isn’t going to ultimately stop persistent hacks on your device, it will certainly make it more difficult for the hackers.

“This is all about imposing cost on these malicious actors,” Neal Ziring, technical director of the National Security Agency’s cybersecurity directorate, told Associated Press.

The reason why rebooting your phone has become an effective way to slow down even the most seasoned hackers has to do with a shift in the way mobile hacks are distributed. Previously, hackers relied on users clicking some bogus link to install malware on a device. Now, hackers are able to infiltrate a smartphone with zero-click malware, giving them instant access.

But the new hacks require a device to stay powered on to persist. Otherwise, the hack disappears during a device’s reboot, and the hacker will have to repeat the process again. While this won’t stop the hacks from coming in, it will at least frustrate whoever is behind the attacks.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t look there is any way to ultimately thwart these attacks yet. What makes matters even worse is the fact that many hackers have access to incredible amounts of resources, as we’ve recently discovered with the massive investigation surrounding NSO Group, an Israeli spyware company whose software was found to be targeting dozens of journalists, activists, and other seemingly innocent individuals.

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