Ethical Hacking News
Google has introduced Advanced Protection for Android devices, a comprehensive security solution designed to protect vulnerable users from targeted threats and promote digital safety. This new feature includes features like Intrusion Logging and Memory Tagging Extension (MTE), which provide enhanced security settings and monitoring capabilities.
Google has introduced an Advanced Protection mode for Android devices, designed to provide enhanced security and protection for vulnerable users. The new feature imposes strong security settings on all apps and services, siloing data and reducing interactions with unsecured web services. Intrusion Logging uses end-to-end encryption to detect attacks that can't be prevented entirely, creating indelible logs stored in the cloud. Android's Memory Tagging Extension (MTE) causes processes to fail if an attacker attempts to exploit a memory vulnerability. Advanced Protection features will launch next week with Android 16, including Intrusion Logging and USB protections.
Google has recently announced a significant update to its security features, introducing an advanced protection mode for Android devices. This new feature is designed to provide enhanced security and protection for vulnerable users, including public figures, activists, journalists, and dissidents who are at risk of targeted attacks.
The Advanced Protection mode is built around imposing strong security settings on all apps and services, siloing data as much as possible and reducing interactions with unsecured web services and previously unknown individuals. This approach is based on Google's rapidly expanding on-device AI scanning capabilities, which provide monitoring and alerts without having to completely eliminate features.
According to Dave Kleidermacher, vice president of engineering at Android's security and privacy division, the main innovation behind Advanced Protection lies in its ability to detect compromise using end-to-end encryption. This feature, known as Intrusion Logging, uses indelible logs stored in the cloud to detect attacks that can't be prevented entirely.
Logging and system monitoring tools are common on laptops and desktops, but offering these capabilities to consumers on mobile devices is more unusual. The ability to create indelible logs that can't be manipulated or deleted by sophisticated attackers is invaluable in addressing targeted attacks.
Another feature of Advanced Protection is Android's Memory Tagging Extension (MTE), which debuted for Google's Pixel line and is starting to be adopted in processors on other devices. This hardware security protection related to how a system manages its memory causes processes to fail if an attacker attempts to exploit a memory vulnerability, such as a buffer overflow.
Advanced Protection features will launch next week with Android 16, but Intrusion Logging will come later this year along with features like USB protections that prevent untrusted peripherals from using your phone's charging port for data transfers. Google is also offering an API for integrating Advanced Protection directly into third-party apps.
According to Kleidermacher, "You want to prevent as much as you can, and a lot of these features are locking down the phone in ways that will make some attacks just much, much harder for attackers, more expensive, or even impossible."
The introduction of Advanced Protection marks an important step forward in Google's efforts to protect vulnerable users on Android devices. By providing enhanced security features, Google is taking a proactive approach to addressing targeted threats and promoting digital safety.
In addition to Advanced Protection, Google has been rolling out various other security features, including end-to-end encrypted email for business customers, which could potentially spawn phishing attacks, particularly in non-Gmail inboxes.
Furthermore, Microsoft's Recall AI Tool Is Making an Unwelcome Return, despite improvements made by the company last year. The tool is privacy-unfriendly and has sparked skepticism among experts.
WhatsApp's AI tools are also walking a tightrope between AI features and privacy, as the platform's new "Private Processing" system designed to allow cloud access without letting Meta or anyone else see end-to-end encrypted chats raises concerns about risks.
Millions of Apple Airplay-Enabled Devices Can Be Hacked via Wi-Fi, according to researchers who reveal a collection of bugs known as AirBorne that would allow any hacker on the same Wi-Fi network as a third-party AirPlay-enabled device to surreptitiously run their own code on it.
Lastly, millions of users are still fumbling with keys due to outdated smart locks. Google's Advanced Protection for Android devices aims to upgrade this situation by providing an alternative solution for users who want to stop fumbling with keys.
Related Information:
https://www.ethicalhackingnews.com/articles/Google-Unveils-Advanced-Protection-for-Android-Devices-A-Comprehensive-Security-Solution-ehn.shtml
https://www.wired.com/story/google-advanced-protection-vulnerable-users-lockdown-android-16/
Published: Tue May 13 14:41:48 2025 by llama3.2 3B Q4_K_M
