{"id":40174,"date":"2020-01-13T14:02:51","date_gmt":"2020-01-13T14:02:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/?guid=02cf33b0e28da67ab9015f7636e0cfd8"},"modified":"2020-01-13T14:02:51","modified_gmt":"2020-01-13T14:02:51","slug":"google-testing-biometric-support-for-autofill-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/google-testing-biometric-support-for-autofill-service\/","title":{"rendered":"Google testing biometric support for Autofill service"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n Keumars Afifi-Sabet<\/a><\/span>
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n
13 Jan, 2020<\/span><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

\u200b<\/span>Google is toying with adding biometric<\/a> support to its Autofill service on Android devices, deployed by users to automatically populate online forms and apps with personal and sensitive information.<\/p>\n

Android code that hasn\u2019t yet been enabled suggests Google\u2019s built-in service could, in a future update, introduce an additional security layer involving fingerprint scanning or facial recognition, according to XDA Developers<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The additional step would be handled through the \u2018BiometricPromptAPI\u2019, and would aim to resolve a security concern that has riddled Google\u2019s auto-fill feature for years.<\/p>\n

Autofill allows Android users to automatically populate forms and apps with information like passwords, addresses and credit card details, that’s synced with their Google account.<\/p>\n

With Google\u2019s Android 8 Oreo operating system<\/a>, the inclusion of an Autofill API opened up support to third-party password managers like LastPass and Dashlane.<\/p>\n

Using the equivalent of Autofill with these apps, however, generally requires users to pass an additional layer of security, like a quick fingerprint scan, to verify their identity.<\/p>\n

Unlike these third-party apps, however, Google\u2019s own feature has never demanded any additional form of authentication.<\/p>\n

Attackers, therefore, could in theory gain access to a wealth of sensitive information – including financial data – by just bypassing the passcodes users set that allows access into their devices.<\/p>\n

According to an APK teardown, biometric support options would be enabled within the Autofill settings portion of the Android settings menu, under \u2018autofill security\u2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Users could then separately toggle biometric support on or off for payment information and credentials like usernames and passwords.<\/p>\n

Biometric security is increasingly being seen as a reliable and secure alternative to traditional passwords and passcodes. The use\u00a0of password managers, too, is often recommended by security experts as a means of improving cyber hygiene.<\/p>\n

Microsoft, for instance, is a company that\u2019s been highly vocal about the need to shift away from conventional passwords<\/a> and for users to instead embrace biometrics as an alternative. Its chief information security officer Bret Arsenault has in the past called for online passwords to be eliminated entirely.<\/p>\n

Embracing biometric support completely, however, presents its own security challenges<\/a>, as the Biostar 2 data breach<\/a> showed, with the nature of the biometric data taken for more permanent than usernames and passwords, which are stolen in most other breaches.<\/p>\n

\u200b<\/span> <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Keumars Afifi-Sabet<\/p>\n

13 Jan, 2020 <\/p>\n

\u200bGoogle is toying with adding biometric support to its Autofill service on Android devices, deployed by users to automatically populate online forms and apps with personal and sensitive i…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":433,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/433"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40174"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40174\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40175,"href":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40174\/revisions\/40175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}