Quantifying Measurable Security

Posted by Eugene Liderman, Android Security & Privacy Team

With Google I/O this week you are going to hear about a lot of new features in Android that are coming in Q. One thing that you will also hear about is how every new Android release comes with dozens of security and privacy enhancements. We have been continually investing in our layered security approach which is also referred to as“ defense-in-depth”. These defenses start with hardware-based security, moving up the stack to the Linux kernel with app sandboxing. On top of that, we provide built-in security services designed to protect against malware and phishing.
However layered security doesn’t just apply to the technology. It also applies to the people and the process. Both Android and Chrome OS have dedicated security teams who are tasked with continually enhancing the security of these operating systems through new features and anti-exploitation techniques. In addition, each team leverages a mature and comprehensive security development lifecycle process to ensure that security is always part of the process and not an afterthought.
Secure by design is not the only thing that Android and Chrome OS have in common. Both operating systems also share numerous key security concepts, including:

• Heavily relying on hardware based security for things like rollback prevention and verified boot
• Continued investment in anti-exploitation techniques so that a bug or vulnerability does not become exploitable
• Implementing two copies of the OS in order to support seamless updates that run in the background and notify the user when the device is ready to boot the new version
• Splitting up feature and security updates and providing a frequent cadence of security updates
• Providing built-in anti-malware and anti-phishing solutions through Google Play Protect and Google Safe Browsing

On the Android Security & Privacy team we’re always trying to find ways to assess our ongoing security investments; we often refer to this as measurable security. One way we measure our ongoing investments is through third party analyst research such as Gartner’s May 2019 Mobile OSs and Device Security: A Comparison of Platforms report (subscription required). For those not familiar with this report, it’s a comprehensive comparison between “the core OS security features that are built into various mobile device platforms, as well as enterprise management capabilities.” In this year’s report, Gartner provides “a comparison of the out-of-the-box controls under the category “Built-In Security”. In the second part, called “Corporate-Managed Security, [Gartner] compares the enterprise management controls available for the latest versions of the major mobile device platforms”. Here is how our operating systems and devices ranked:

• Android 9 (Pie) scored “strong” in 26 out of 30 categories
• Pixel 3 with Titan M received “strong” ratings in 27 of the 30 categories, and had the most “strong” ratings in the built-in security section out of all devices evaluated (15 out of 17)
• Chrome OS was added in this year's report and received strong ratings in 27 of the 30 categories.

Check out the video of Patrick Hevesi, who was the lead analyst on the report, introducing the 2019 report, the methodology and what went into this year's criteria.

You can see a breakdown of all of the categories in the table below:

Take a look at all of the great security and privacy enhancements that came in Pie by reading Android Pie à la mode: Security & Privacy. Also be sure to live stream our Android Q security update at Google IO titled: Security on Android: What's Next on Thursday at 8:30am Pacific Time.

Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.