Wrong and Wrong.
I had a lightning strike near my house a couple years ago that resulted in damages that amounted to over $6,000. Most of my networking equipment (expensive Cisco enterprise-level equipment) was damaged. My iMac was damaged. My IP phones were damaged. My firewall was hit so hard that it smoked. My TV streaming box was damaged. My very expensive Cisco POE switch was hit so hard that it couldn't boot anymore.
Everything was plugged in to a UPS with surge protection. The UPS company reimbursed me only for a fraction of the equipment that was damaged. Little dirty secret that the UPS manufacturers don't tell you is that they only reimburse for the equipment for which you can produce receipts. I didn't save receipts for most of my equipment.
Another thing that I learned was that no surge protector and no UPS could stop the power surge induced by lightning strike. Not even all-house surge protectors or high-end surge protectors can protect from such damage.
I was always skeptical about the reports about the damage that a lightning hitting near a house could do. My wife's elderly grandfather would go around his house and unplug every piece of electronic equipment that he had before a lightning storm. For 20 years I made fun of him and thought that as long as everything was plugged in to surge protectors and/or UPS with surge protectors, I was safe. Finally, after surviving hundreds of lightning storms, my own house was targeted and there was tremendous damage done to my equipment. After what happened to me I learned via research that the only safe way to protect your equipment from a power surge induced by a lightning strike is to UNPLUG the equipment. There is no other way that can guarantee that it will not be damaged. And a $10 surge protector for sure will not do anything to protect you from a lightning-induced power surge.
