Android 10 Go edition will bring speed, security gains - Tech Xplore

Posted: 28 Sep 2019 10:57 AM PDT

September 28, 2019 weblog

Android 10 Go edition will bring speed, security gains

Google is bringing out its updated Android 10 version of Android Go. Google said, "we launched Android (Go edition) in 2018—a platform tailored for smartphones with 1.5GB of memory or less." Now Google has announced Android 10 (Go Edition), the version of Android built specifically for entry-level devices with 1.5GB RAM or less.

The update will bring speed and security improvements. This means people who need to stay within a modest budget can still look forward to speed and security improvements in their new entry-level phones. As Ryan Whitwam reminded ExtremeTech readers, "not all phones are created equal."

That said, Jon Fingas told Engadget readers that "You'll have to be patient when phones based on Android 10 Go edition are due to arrive later in the fall. If this lives up to Google's hype, though, you might not feel like you're compromising as much as before."

Consumers need not feel guilty about saving money at the expense of getting a phone that, as Jon Fingas, Engadget worded it, may be pokey and sometimes insecure.

"Keep an eye out for the new phones with Android 10 (Go edition) launching later this fall," said Google. Damien Wilde in 9to5Google said Nokia phones will have the edition by next year. That includes Nokia 1 Plus, Nokia 2.1, and Nokia 1. Nokia 1 Plus can be expected early next year and the others after that.

Security and speed were the two S words mentioned throughout the spray of headlines announcing the updated version.

Ryan Whitwam, ExtremeTech, tried to cut through hype to qualify what will actually be great and how not to over-enthuse. "These phones will still be slow compared with a flagship device," he said, "but Google promises faster app launches and encryption."

The security talking point centered on a new form of encryption, Adiantum. The latter proves you don't have to feel guilty about going for a cheaply priced phone and missing out on basic security.

Turning to security plus points, Fingas said the new Android 10 Go edition includes an encryption system that secures data without affecting performance or needing any special hardware.

Back in February, a Google Security Blog post talked about the kind of system in Android 10, Adiantum.

What is Adantium?

"Adiantum is an innovation in cryptography designed to make storage encryption more efficient for devices without cryptographic acceleration." Built by Google, Adantium is suitable for entry-level smartphones. 9to5Google: It allows these resource-constrained devices to encrypt data without impacting performance.

"Up until now, not all entry-level smartphones were able to encrypt data without affecting device performance," said Google. Now, "all Go edition users will have the same level of data security as any Android device."

All in all, Whitwam said that Adiantum "allows all Android Go phones to run encrypted storage without performance bottlenecks."

Impact on developers? Google said that "more Android developers are now enhancing their apps to work well on Android (Go edition) devices. In the past year, popular apps like Uber, Facebook Messenger, Twitter, and Spotify have been redesigned to be Go-ready."

Explore further

New Android version, 'Pie,' rolls out Monday on Pixel phones

More information: blog.google/products/android/m … -entry-level-phones/

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Encryption for Android (Guide) | 3 ways to Secure your Android phone - https://proprivacy.com/

Posted: 02 May 2019 12:00 AM PDT

Encryption in its most basic form is the process of changing information into illegible code to prevent people from accessing your data.

As of Android 7.0 Nougat, which was first released in March 2016, almost all Android phones come pre-encrypted. However, this encryption is not without problems. In this article, we show you several ways of encrypting your Android phone.

3 ways to encrypt your Android phone

Use Third-party file Android encryption apps

If you store highly sensitive data on your phone then, you really shouldn't trust Android's encryption. What you can do, though, is secure your data using third-party apps.

EDS/ EDS Lite is an open source app that allows you to store files in a secure VeraCrypt (or LUKS, EncFS, or CyberSafe) container on your phone. Cryptomator will encrypt data locally as well as securely syncing it to the cloud.

High-end Samsung users also have the built-in Secure Folder feature, which allows you to store files and apps in a specially encrypted folder protected by the Samsung Knox security platform. Similar features are available on Huawei, OnePlus, Oppo, Viovo, and Xiaomi phones.
Note that numerous third-party app locker apps exist, but as far as we are aware these do not actually encrypt data stored by the locked app.
Enable Lockdown mode

Android 9.0 Pie has introduced a neat feature aimed at stopping people from forcing you to unlock your phone.

Once enabled, "Lockdown mode" brings up an "Enter Lockdown" option when you long-press the power button. Selecting it disables biometric authentication methods such as fingerprint scanning and Smart Lock (which can open your phone when connected to an authenticated WiFi network or Bluetooth device, for example).

To enable Lockdown mode in Android Pie 9.0 Pie:
1. go to Settings
2. click on security Lock screen preferences
3. click on lock Screen Secure Lock Settings
4. click on Show lockdown option on Samsung phones
Encrypting SD Cards on Android

Most phone manufacturers no longer support external SD card storage. A notable exception is Samsung, although others also exist. If your phone supports expandable storage then it should be possible to encrypt it.

On a Samsung S9+, this is simply done by going to Settings, selecting Biometrics & security and choosing to Encrypt your SD card, but may vary by device.

SD card encryption is completely transparent in use, as long as you access encrypted files from the phone you encrypted them on.

The files cannot now be accessed in any other way, though. If you lose or break the phone used to encrypt the SD card, you will not be able to recover data stored on it.

Current Android Encryption

Before Android 7.0, data was protected using dm-crypt full disk encryption (FDE).

An open source transparent disk encryption subsystem used in Linux, dm-crypt is commonly used for desktop encryption. This approach works quite well on desktop computers, but not so well in Android as users rarely power their devices down.

Android enforced strong lock screen protection (via either password or fingerprint) to mitigate against this problem, but this could never be as secure as the 128-bit AES-CBC with essiv:sha256 encryption used to secure data when the device was off.

If an adversary could bypass the lock screen, a not impossible task, then the encryption keys would just be sitting there in the memory for them to grab.

Final thoughts

These days, high and mid-range Android phones all come encrypted straight out-of-the-box, and this should also soon be true of low-end Android phones.

This is undoubtedly a step forward for the security of most phone users' personal data, but if you store sensitive files on your phone, then you should further encrypt them using something like EDS.

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