On the eve of this year’s Safer Internet Day, tech giant Google officially announced a new form of encryption called Adiantum, aimed at low-end phones and smart devices which don’t have specialized hardware to encrypt local data efficiently.
This development should make low-end devices more secure than predecessors which came without local data encryption as this is a big selling point for people who store personal data on their devices.
Google explains that Adiantum will help secure our connected world by allowing everything from smartwatches to Internet-connected medical devices to encrypt sensitive data.
Google says that Adiantum is ideal for devices that ship with low-end processors such as the ARM Cortex-A7 which do not include hardware support for AES. Aside from many Android Go phones, some smartwatches, and TVs ship with these low-end processors so they’ll also benefit from Adiantum in the future.
Google’s Director of Mobile Security Strategy, Android Security and Privacy Team, Eugene Liderman commented during the announcement:
“Our hope is that Adiantum will democratize encryption for all devices. Just like you wouldn’t buy a phone without text messaging, there will be no excuse for compromising security for the sake of device performance. Everyone should have privacy and security, regardless of their phone’s price tag.”
Read more about how Adiantum works here.
