As Cybersecurity Awareness Month draws to a close, Google has announced a number of new features to help secure the sign-in process as well as how you use your account.
Going forward, the company will require that JavaScript be enabled when logging in and when removing harmful apps during Security Checkup with Play Protect.
Google will now also run a risk assessment on your account login page that will only allow you to sign in if “nothing looks suspicious.” This feature is intended to help protect against phishing and it requires that JavaScript be enabled.
Time for a security checkup
According to Google, just 0.1 per cent of users do not have JavaScript enabled and the company explains why it requires users to enable it in a blog post detailing the new security features, saying:
“Chances are, JavaScript is already enabled in your browser; it helps power lots of the websites people use everyday. But, because it may save bandwidth or help pages load more quickly, a tiny minority of our users (0.1%) choose to keep it off. This might make sense if you are reading static content, but we recommend that you keep Javascript on while signing into your Google Account so we can better protect you.”
Once you sign in, the Security Checkup feature also checks for any malicious applications installed on your Android devices by leveraging Google Play Protect. At this point, you may be prompted to uninstall any harmful apps found on your smartphone or even to remove logged in devices that have been unused for some time such as old phones or tablets.
If your account does happen to be compromised, Google will do its best to help you regain it with a new step-by-step “Secure your account” walk-through. This tutorial will be triggered automatically if any potentially unauthorized activity is detected and it will work to verify critical settings, files and check financial activity.
Via 9to5 Google
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