Google’s Advanced Protection now flags and blocks risky downloads on Chrome

Google’s Advanced Protection program puts as many obstacles between the information stored in your Gmail, Drive, and various other Google accounts — namely by requiring authentication through physical Titan Security Keys. Now, if you sync your tabs, passwords, and other credentials while browsing the web with Chrome, Google will hike up protections by alerting Advanced Protection users to risky downloads or even block them from occurring.

One of the big risks for people with targets on their backs is communication. It is vital and, yet, it is fraught with trust decisions. Links and files get exchanged. Sometimes, they hold up a facade to hide lethal code that could snoop on you. Sometimes, background actors could intercept your internet connection and perform an attack as such.

Whether it’s a click-through or “drive-by” download, as Google terms it, Advanced Protection users who have turned on sync in Chrome will now be alerted to or blocked from downloads based on certain risk factors — which the company did not specify, but we’d figure file types and naming conventions are up there.

Advanced Protection requires the purchase of a Titan Security Key Bundle, priced at $50.

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