When Google launched its top Pixel 6 and 6 Pro smartphone last year, the company touted “system on chip” Tensor and a dedicated Titan M2 security chip designed to underpin a new generation of security and privacy features. Now, when it’s released Pixel 7 and 7 Procompany say on Tuesday that it is building on that foundation with the new Tensor G2 processor, extended independent security certification for Titan M2, and software features like the upcoming built-in Android VPN to protect user privacy. used while maintaining performance.
Google spent three years testing the Titan M2 by third-party lab SGS Brightsight. The chip now has a series of Common Criteria hardware security certifications, the same process that smart cards, SIM cards, and bank card chips go through. Titan M2 has passed the highest hardware vulnerability assessment, which means it is highly resistant to physical attacks, an area that has increasingly important for chip manufacturers In recent years.
“This test simulates the sophistication of state-sponsored attacks, a person with almost the resources and determination to do,” said Dave Kleidermacher, Android’s vice president of engineering for security and privacy. unlimited. “At Google and for Pixel, we talk a lot about mining costs. Nothing is perfect — there will be vulnerabilities and exploits — but we want to continually raise the cost to the attacker.”
With Pixel 7 and 7 Pro, Google is continuing expand its efforts about what the company calls Protected Computing. The goal is to limit how and when user data can be accessed, de-identify and anonymize the data when it must be used, minimizing the amount of identifying data typically generated about user and keep as much processing out of the cloud and on the user’s device as possible. On Pixel devices, Google has control over both hardware and software, which the company says allows it to strategically plan and maximize security and performance instead of making trade-offs.
While the privacy and security benefits of a VPN are there is a debate For the average user, Google One’s VPN will be released as an integrated service for Pixel 7 and 7 Pro later this year for users who want to encrypt their network traffic and protect their IP address from hackers. mobile networks and internet providers. Google points out that, in the past, users who wanted to add a VPN on their mobile devices needed to download a third-party option instead of having an integrated and optimized service.
Google One’s VPN is open source and aims to address some of the classic VPN concerns by separating authentication and key management for encryption on separate servers that are not accessible to each other. In essence, the service is set up to blur itself so that even a scam insider can’t identify who you are and what your browsing history is by compromising the service. Google also says that it doesn’t record users’ browsing data, though the company says it does record some aggregated, anonymous metrics. Outside publish an incident on how the service works, Google has also authorized and publish an independent audit from NCC Group on VPN by Google One security.
“We’re investing quite heavily in making sure we have first- and third-party tests, reviews, certifications, and analytics to see,” said Jesse Seed, product manager at Google. that we are indeed providing verifiable security and privacy guarantees.” lead for silicon security.
Like Pixel 7 and 7 Pro signed in mostly incremental improvements in their feature set, security and privacy changes are not revolutionary. But Kleidermacher and Seed emphasize that this year’s changes are hard to win – and with so many digital threats facing, both for high-risk targets and casual users, everything has a stake. value.
