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ZDNET’s key takeaways
- This Android feature aims to protect you from banking scams.
- It will detect and hang up calls from spoofed numbers.
- The feature will expand to more banks later this year.
Scammers love to impersonate businesses you trust in hopes of convincing you to fall for their cons. One tactic they use is to call you pretending to be from your bank or financial institution. The goal is to trick you into sending them money or revealing your account details. Now, Google is rolling out a new security tool that aims to combat these types of spoofed calls.
Designed to protect you from financial theft or account compromise, the feature aims to detect spoofed calls. Here’s how it works.
First, you need to install your bank’s app on your Android device. When you receive a call that seems to be from your bank, Android queries the app for confirmation to determine if the call is legit. If the app finds that no one from the bank is actually calling you, the call is disconnected.
Also: The patching treadmill: Why traditional application security is no longer enough
In some cases, a bank could also assign certain phone numbers to be inbound-only, meaning they’re never used to call customers. Any call spoofing from one of these numbers will also automatically be ended.
Spoofing a number from a trusted business like your bank isn’t that difficult. Scammers use internet-based calling systems to spoof their caller ID so it appears they’re calling from a different number. This type of caller ID spoofing can easily turn you into a victim of financial fraud. These scams have led to annual losses of more than 850 million euros (around $997 million), according to a paper released by Europol last October.
To kick off this new feature, Google said that it’s working with select banks and financial institutions to implement these verified forms of financial calls. Rolling out to devices with Android version 11 or higher in the coming weeks, the verification will start slowly. Initially, only Brazil-based banks Revolut, Itaú, and Nubank will be on board. But Google promises that more banks will be supported later in the year.
Other new Android security upgrades
Beyond the spoofed call protection, Google has a few other tricks up its sleeve to defend the privacy and security of Android users.
1. One-time password protection
Scammers will try to intercept the one-time passwords (OTPs) from your text messages to snoop on your personal accounts. To thwart this, Android will now automatically hide these security codes for three hours from most apps, making sure that the OTPs are safe from unauthorized access.
2. Enhancements to Live Threat Detection
Launched in 2024, Live Threat Detection analyzes the behavior of apps via on-device AI and then alerts you if an app seems suspicious. With the latest enhancements, this feature will warn you about any suspicious behavior that could also be dangerous or harmful. The protection will also extend to such activities as SMS forwarding in which an app forwards a message to another phone number.
3. Enhancements to Advanced Protection
Another existing security feature, Advanced Protection warns you about apps that try to change or hide their icons, a potential sign that they could be malicious. With Android 17, Advanced Protection will also remove access to the accessibility service for all apps not labeled as accessibility tools.
4. Protections for lost or stolen phones
Google’s Find Hub already helps you track down a lost or stolen phone, allowing you to lock it remotely. Currently, your device can be unlocked by anyone who knows its passcode or PIN. With Android 17, you’ll be able to require that the phone be unlocked only through biometric authentication, such as your facial or fingerprint scan. The goal is to prevent thieves who discover your passcode from unlocking your phone.
5. Protecting your location
Many apps ask for your location so they’re able to work effectively. These include navigation apps that need to know your exact whereabouts. Coming in Android 17 is a new location button that lets you share your precise location but only for specific tasks while an app is open. As an example, you could use this to track down a nearby restaurant without granting permanent access to your location each time you open the app.
“The updates we’ve shared today represent a significant leap forward in our journey toward a world of verifiable, transparent trust,” Google said in a new blog post. “By improving protections against banking scams and extending powerful protections like Live Threat Detection and Android Advanced Protection, we are ensuring that Android remains the most secure platform.”
