Google’s Advanced Protection Program will protect against risky Chrome downloads

Starting today, users enrolled in Google’s Advanced Protection Program, which brings increased security and protections to high-profile Google Account users like journalists, activists, politicians, and business leaders, will get additional safeguards for downloads made in Chrome.

To turn on the feature, Google says that a user enrolled in the Advanced Protection Program just needs to turn on Chrome sync. Then, when that user tries to download a file that Chrome identifies as potentially dangerous, Chrome will show a warning or even block the download.

Google says it added this feature to better protect against attacks that happen outside of email through linked malware and accidental downloads of harmful software.

The Advanced Protection Program already brings several security improvements to Google accounts. For example, the program requires two physical security keys. (One acts as a backup.) Once enrolled, the program requires using a key in addition to a password to log in to a Google Account, and it limits outside access to Gmail, Drive files, Google apps, and “select third party apps.” If a user needs to restore access to their account, there are additional verification steps to verify the user’s identity.

Today’s news comes on the heels of additional security announcements the company made last week. Google announced an expansion of Google’s Titan two-factor authorization security keys to Canada, Japan, the UK, and France, as well as a beta program that allows G Suite, Google Cloud Platform, and Cloud Identity admins to enroll high-profile users in their organizations into the Advanced Protection Program.

As more and more customers are thinking about security, these protections should come as welcome improvements that will hopefully protect more users’ data.