Doing This Can Stop Some Hackers From Stealing Your Phone Information, According to Experts

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The step may help prevent some, but not all, hacking attempts.

There’s a pretty simple way to protect your cell phone from hackers, according to experts: turning your cellphone off and then back on. Experts have said that the small task can help prevent hackers from stealing information, the Associated Press reported

Sen. Angus King, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told the AP he learned about the safety measure during a briefing by security staff earlier this year. He now does it "probably once a week.”

The trick is not foolproof, but it can make it more difficult to sustain access to a phone and steal a person's data. Many people never turn their phones off, but a simple shutdown can interrupt a hack. 

Some hackers, however, attempt to steal all of a person’s information in one sitting, according to experts. 

"Adversaries came to the realization they don't need to persist," Patrick Wardle, a security expert and former NSA researcher, told the AP. "If they could do a one-time pull and exfiltrate all your chat messages and your contact and your passwords, it's almost game over anyways, right?"

There's now what's called a "zero-click" hack, which works without a person having to open a link to begin the hack.

But some other protections the National Security Agency has said can be taken to protect one's information include setting strong passwords, avoiding public WiFi networks, and not having sensitive conversations near your mobile device.

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