Security News

Today, Microsoft, Apple, and Google announced plans to support a common passwordless sign-in standard developed by the World Wide Web Consortium and the FIDO Alliance. "These multi-device FIDO credentials, sometimes referred to as passkeys, represent a monumental step toward a world without passwords," added Microsoft Identity Division Vice President Alex Simons.

Google has released the second part of the May security patch for Android, including a fix for an actively exploited Linux kernel vulnerability. As Android uses a modified Linux kernel, the vulnerability also affects the operating system.

Google, Apple, Microsoft promise end to passwords, courtesy of your mobile phone. A future without passwords may be closer than we think, at least when a new initiative to enlist your smartphone as a mobile authenticator gets off the ground.

Google is joining Microsoft in its attempts to tackle EU concerns regarding data sovereignty but some privacy experts are yet to be convinced by the move. "In parallel, Google Cloud will continue to provide customers with legal mechanisms for international data transfer, which will include making the protections offered by the new EU data transfer framework available once it is implemented."

Google in the next few days plans to begin testing fenced frames, a proposed web API to help its Privacy Sandbox ad technologies meet commitments to privacy of a sort. Fenced frames are designed to take the place of inline frames, or iframes, for specific scenarios like delivering interest-based ads without betraying interest data to the web page in which they're embedded.

Phishing actors abuse Google's SMTP relay service to bypass email security products and successfully deliver malicious emails to targeted users. According to a report from email security firm Avanan, there has been a sudden uptick in threat actors abusing Google's SMTP relay service starting in April 2022.

Google has released Android 13 Beta 1 and has sent out a call for bug hunters: Find bugs in it, and you'll get a 50% bonus reward payout. Getting Android 13 as secure as possible before the final release.

Google has officially released the first developer preview for the Privacy Sandbox on Android 13, offering an "Early look" at the SDK Runtime and Topics API to boost users' privacy online. "The Privacy Sandbox on Android Developer Preview program will run over the course of 2022, with a beta release planned by the end of the year," the search giant said in an overview.

Google has expanded its policies to allow doxxing victims to remove more of their personally identifiable information from search engine results starting earlier this week. While people already had the option to request the removal of personal data that could be used in financial fraud, such as credit card and bank account info, before this update, Google now also allows demands to delete contact information.

Google has announced that all security researchers who report Android 13 Beta vulnerabilities through its Vulnerability Rewards Program will get a 50% bonus on top of the standard reward until May 26th, 2022. Bug hunters can get a maximum payout of $1.5 million for a full remote code execution exploit chain on the Titan M used in Google Pixel Phones running an Android 13 Beta build.