diff --git a/install_files/ansible-base/roles/common/tasks/unattended_upgrades.yml b/install_files/ansible-base/roles/common/tasks/unattended_upgrades.yml
index 63b2d6a40bd..94c026d7830 100644
--- a/install_files/ansible-base/roles/common/tasks/unattended_upgrades.yml
+++ b/install_files/ansible-base/roles/common/tasks/unattended_upgrades.yml
@@ -1,9 +1,12 @@
 ---
-- name: Install unattended-upgrades package.
+- name: Install unattended-upgrades package and update-notifier-common
   apt:
-    name: unattended-upgrades
-    state: latest
+    name: "{{ item }}"
+    state: present
     update_cache: yes
+  with_items:
+    - unattended-upgrades
+    - update-notifier-common
   tags:
     - apt
     - unattended-upgrades
@@ -29,3 +32,12 @@
   tags:
     - apt
     - unattended-upgrades
+
+- name: Add cron job to indicate to unattended-upgrades that a reboot is required.
+  cron:
+    name: Indicate that a reboot is required at the scheduled time.
+    job: "touch /var/run/reboot-required"
+    hour: "*/12"
+  tags:
+    - cron
+    - unatted-upgrades
diff --git a/molecule/testinfra/common/test_automatic_updates.py b/molecule/testinfra/common/test_automatic_updates.py
index b497ceea2b1..5fb7c1a2e5c 100644
--- a/molecule/testinfra/common/test_automatic_updates.py
+++ b/molecule/testinfra/common/test_automatic_updates.py
@@ -237,6 +237,20 @@ def test_unattended_upgrades_functional(host):
         assert expected_result in c.stdout
 
 
+def test_reboot_required_cron(host):
+    """
+    Unatteded-upgrades does not reboot the system if the updates don't require it.
+    However, we use daily reboots for SecureDrop to ensure memory is cleared periodically.
+    Here, we ensure that reboot-required flag is dropped twice daily to ensure the system
+    is rebooted every day at the scheduled time.
+    """
+    if host.system_info.codename != "xenial":
+        with host.sudo():
+            cronlist = host.run("crontab -l").stdout
+            cronjob = "* */12 * * * touch /var/run/reboot-required"
+            assert cronjob in cronlist
+
+
 def test_all_packages_updated(host):
     """
     Ensure a safe-upgrade has already been run, by checking that no