Should you turn your router off? For security?

[Mark M]

I was at a business event and there was a brief presentation from an IT company which covered IT security and ransomware . They said the single most important thing to do is switch off your router once a week for the whole night.

I’ve not heard of this before, can anyone confirm what the reason and/or benefits are of this?

 

[The_Arbiter]

Posting to sub as i'm curious, i don't know much about networks but never heard this before.

 

[Sparx]

Name and shame this IT company… so I know never to deal with them

If they even knew a logical reason why you would do that, you’d have heard it during this presentation from them - rather than just a statement that it should be done, backed up with no underlying reason.

Morons

 

[ChrisD.]

I was at a business event and there was a brief presentation from an IT company which covered IT security and ransomware . They said the single most important thing to do is switch off your router once a week for the whole night.

I’ve not heard of this before, can anyone confirm what the reason and/or benefits are of this?

Absurd advice.

 

[andy_mk3]

Name and shame this IT company… so I know never to deal with them

If they even knew a logical reason why you would do that, you’d have heard it during this presentation from them - rather than just a statement that it should be done, backed up with no underlying reason.

Morons

This 100%, it's actually laughable advice from an IT company

 

[VaderDSL]

Sounds like a good idea tbh, when the IT department need some extra budget, or if management try to downsize IT, they just "forget" to turn the router on in the morning. When management ask why the network isn't working, point them towards their budget cuts etc. and hey presto, extra budget

 

[Caged]

"Single most important", most definitely not. Doubt it even makes the slightest difference.

 

[visibleman]

Anyone know what the theory is behind this? Possibly forcing an IP change on a dynamic (bar "sticky" connections like VM) connection?
Not sure what the security/ransomware angle is though

 

[MagicBoy]

That makes no sense. Name and shame!

 

[Hyburnate]

Yeah that makes no sense at all. If anything you could cause more issues with DLM? A decent firewall, well, any firewall will combat most problems when it comes to trying to get a new IP anyway. I'd just go ahead and forget everything they said.

 

[Steampunk]

A load of nonsense. It does nothing to lessen security risks (except for disconnecting you from the internet for one night), and breaks a load of functionality you might want while disconnected.

 

[Silicon Si]

Probably comes from when some routers a couple of years ago were infected by a malware and FBI made a statement about turning them off and back on, to clear volatile memory.

 

[MagicBoy]

Bit of a stretch going from a one off FBI warning which affected a fraction of a percent of active home routers, to "everyone turn your router off a night a week"...

 

[Rainmaker]

I read this thread a few hours ago, and it's still swimming round my brain so I've come back to it. Like most of you, my initial reaction was 'lolwut?'. As has already been said, the only real things in my mind were trying to get a new dynamic IP or clearing non-persistent malware (but that doesn't require 'overnight'). To make it a weekly event though? Er... No thanks. My servers need connectivity. Name the company, OP. I'm curious.

 

[Steampunk]

Shutting down your router overnight to get a new IP address is also pointless. Most DHCP servers will match up the MAC address with the previously allocated IP, and will just use it again, unless the cache has been purged or that IP allocation has timed out and been allocated elsewhere. A night is not usually long enough for that. Far easier would be to simply use a spoofed MAC address in the router, that can be done in a minute. Even if you did that, who's to say your new IP address isn't going to be more problematic that the old one (ie banned from websites or targetted for attack)?

The whole idea is like saying the most important thing to stop your car being stolen is to put it in the garage one night a week, and hope no one in your household needs to use the car.

 

[Rainmaker]

Shutting down your router overnight to get a new IP address is also pointless. Most DHCP servers will match up the MAC address with the previously allocated IP, and will just use it again, unless the cache has been purged or that IP allocation has timed out and been allocated elsewhere. A night is not usually long enough for that. Far easier would be to simply use a spoofed MAC address in the router, that can be done in a minute. Even if you did that, who's to say your new IP address isn't going to be more problematic that the old one (ie banned from websites or targetted for attack)?

The whole idea is like saying the most important thing to stop your car being stolen is to put it in the garage one night a week, and hope no one in your household needs to use the car.

Exactly. We know that, but apparently whomever gave the speech didn't. Or something's gotten seriously lost in translation somewhere.

 

[The_Arbiter]

So everyone's clueless to this, i'm now more curious. Could just be some old wives tale of the network world

 

[Steampunk]

So everyone's clueless to this, i'm now more curious. Could just be some old wives tale of the network world

Dodgy consultants filtering for those companies that will hire them and believe all the BS and associated billing.

 

[Ad_Augendae]

I was at a business event and there was a brief presentation from an IT company which covered IT security and ransomware . They said the single most important thing to do is switch off your router once a week for the whole night.

I’ve not heard of this before, can anyone confirm what the reason and/or benefits are of this?

Did they guy mention anything about spotted paint or left handed hammers by chance ?