Android 15 presents an essential new safety characteristic

Google is introducing a safety characteristic in Android 15 to protect towards “juice jacking” assaults, as reported by Android Authority, The brand new characteristic is at present being examined within the Android 15 beta.

Questioning what a “juice jacking” assault is? It describes an occasion the place a hacker secretly sends knowledge payloads to your machine, ought to it have the power to each cost and switch knowledge over the identical USB connection. This contains most fashionable smartphones, and examples of {hardware} used for juice jacking embrace cell charging stations. Ought to the assault achieve success, hackers might compromise the machine, wreak havoc, and endanger your privateness.

To counter this in Android 15, you’ll have the ability to prohibit USB entry when in lockdown mode, whereas nonetheless with the ability to energy your machine utilizing a USB cable. At the moment, this isn’t potential. The characteristic can be discovered within the Energy menu and could be activated after holding down the facility button, ought to your cellphone be arrange like this. From there, all it can want is a faucet of the lockdown button and knowledge will instantly be restricted. Curiously, lockdown mode was launched with Android 9 in 2018, however the non-compulsory characteristic solely obscured notifications and turned off authentication besides in your major technique, such because the PIN, password, or sample.

If you happen to’re studying this and getting nervous, do not forget that juice jacking may be very uncommon. Essentially the most prevalent state of affairs when it would happen is when utilizing a public charging station in an airport or comparable location. Regardless of the rarity, it’s reassuring to see Google enhancing the safety of its upcoming cell working system.

Google is predicted to launch Android 15 to the general public later this 12 months. It ought to first seem on Google Pixel gadgets earlier than increasing to different Android-based gadgets. The replace presents a number of new options, together with an all-new notification cooldown, partial display sharing, and audio sharing. Android 15 additionally contains extra simple Bluetooth controls, extra dependable NFC, app archiving, and extra.  Internally, Android 15 known as “Vanilla Ice Cream.”

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