All news with #google tag

🛡️ Google has added a separate user alignment critic to its Gemini-powered Chrome browsing agent to vet and block proposed actions that do not match user intent. The critic is isolated from web content and sees only metadata about planned actions, providing feedback to the primary planning model when it rejects a step. Google also enforces origin sets to limit where the agent can read or act, requires confirmations for banking, medical, password use and purchases, and runs a classifier plus automated red‑teaming to detect prompt injection attempts during preview.

🛡️ Google announced a set of layered security measures for Chrome after adding agentic AI features, aimed at reducing the risk of indirect prompt injections and cross-origin data exfiltration. The centerpiece is a User Alignment Critic, a separate model that reviews and can veto proposed agent actions using only action metadata to avoid being poisoned by malicious page content. Chrome also enforces Agent Origin Sets via a gating function that classifies task-relevant origins into read-only and read-writable sets, requires gating approval before adding new origins, and pairs these controls with a prompt-injection classifier, Safe Browsing, on-device scam detection, user work logs, and explicit approval prompts for sensitive actions.

🔍 Industry debate is heating up over AI’s role in the cyber threat chain, with some experts calling warnings exaggerated while many frontline practitioners report concrete AI-assisted attacks. Recent reports from Google and Anthropic document malware and espionage leveraging LLMs and agentic tools. CISOs are urged to balance fundamentals with rapid defenses and prepare boards for trade-offs.

🛡️ Google is introducing a new defense layer in Chrome called User Alignment Critic to protect upcoming agentic browsing features powered by Gemini. The isolated secondary LLM operates as a high‑trust system component that vets each action the primary agent proposes, using deterministic rules, origin restrictions and a prompt‑injection classifier to block risky or irrelevant behaviors. Chrome will pause for user confirmation on sensitive sites, run continuous red‑teaming and push fixes via auto‑update, and is offering bounties to encourage external testing.

🛡️ Chrome describes a layered approach to secure agentic browsing with Gemini, focusing on defenses against indirect prompt injection and goal‑hijacking. A new User Alignment Critic — an isolated, high‑trust model — reviews planned agent actions using only metadata and can veto misaligned steps. Chrome also enforces Agent Origin Sets to limit readable and writable origins, adds deterministic confirmations for sensitive actions, runs prompt‑injection detection in real time, and sustains continuous red‑teaming and monitoring to reduce exfiltration and unwanted transactions.

🩺 Google Health AI Developer Foundations has added DICOMweb support to MedGemma, releasing a public Docker container, container source code, and API specifications so teams can deploy DICOM-aware services that accept medical images as DICOMweb links. The update pairs with pre-built Vertex Model Garden resources for GCP users and leverages existing MedSigLIP containers that already understood DICOM. The post also demonstrates a FHIR navigation agent that uses the model’s awareness of FHIR to retrieve patient context without ingesting full records.

🔒 The U.S. Department of Transportation has moved its workforce to Google Workspace with Gemini, becoming the first cabinet-level agency to transition away from legacy providers under the GSA OneGov Strategy. More than 12,000 users are already on Workspace, with roughly 40,000 additional employees slated to migrate in 2026. The deployment integrated NotebookLM, Chrome Enterprise Premium, and Workspace Enterprise Plus with Assured Controls Plus, and the foundational system was delivered in just 22 days. DOT emphasizes FedRAMP High authorization, 100% U.S.-based support, and AI-enabled workflows to strengthen security, collaboration, and operational efficiency.

🚀 Replit and Google Cloud have expanded a strategic, multi‑year partnership to bring vibe coding capabilities to enterprise developers and teams. Replit will continue to run on Google Cloud infrastructure—leveraging Cloud Run, Google Kubernetes Engine, BigQuery, and Vertex AI—and now supports Google models including Gemini 3, 2.5 Flash Lite, 2.5 Flash, and Imagen 4 to power coding and multimodal workflows. The agreement also includes joint go‑to‑market and co‑sell initiatives to accelerate adoption across enterprise customers.

🔍 Google Cloud has introduced data products in Dataplex Universal Catalog (preview), packaging curated data assets, documentation, and governance controls into purpose-built units aligned to business use cases. These data products let producers declare quality, freshness, ownership, and contractual guarantees while grouping assets to simplify access and reduce operational toil. Consumers can discover, request access, and rely on documented lineage and context to accelerate analytics. Google also positions data products as foundational inputs to more reliable AI and agent-driven workflows.

🤖 Google Public Sector ran a #100DaysOfAgents campaign and an interactive Mission District at its October 29, 2025 Public Sector Summit where attendees built 300+ AI agent prototypes using self-serve builder stations. The initiative demonstrates how AI agents can accelerate mission outcomes by automating complex tasks, breaking down data silos, and improving access to services. Prototype examples ranged from a Grid Optimization Analyst to a Water System Transition Planner and an NIH Access Assistant; agents in the library are illustrative, not production-ready. Google invites agencies to partner with experts, prototype with Gemini for Government, and continue development at Google Cloud Next.

🔒 Google is expanding its Android in-call scam protection to cover several U.S. financial apps, including Cash App and the JPMorgan Chase mobile banking app. The feature, introduced with Android 16, warns users when they launch a financial app while sharing their screen during a call with an unknown number, presenting a persistent 30-second alert that only allows ending the call. The protection runs on Android 11 and later and remains in a testing phase.

🧭 Google announces generally available automated metadata generation in the Google Data Cloud, using Dataplex Universal Catalog and Gemini to convert profiling and schema context into human-readable table and column descriptions. The capability integrates with BigQuery, stores generated descriptions for search and governance, and is accessible via an API. It aims to reduce "metadata debt," accelerate time-to-insight, and provide reliable grounding for AI agents, while still encouraging human review for key business definitions.

🔒 Android is expanding its pilot for in-call scam protection that detects when users launch participating financial apps while screen sharing during calls from unsaved numbers. The feature warns users, offers a one-tap end-call and stop-sharing option, and enforces a 30-second pause to disrupt social engineering. After UK success and pilots in Brazil and India, Google is rolling pilots with US fintechs including Cash App and banks like JPMorganChase.

🧬 Combining Google’s ADK, Gemini, and Cloud infrastructure, this work reframes variant interpretation as a conversational workflow that removes repetitive scripting and context switching. A two-phase design performs heavy VEP annotation once, stores versioned ADK artifacts and public BigQuery datasets, and enables sub-5-second interactive queries via a QueryAgent. Validation with an APOB spike-in demonstrated single-variant precision, compatibility across DeepVariant versions, and scalability to ~8.8M variants.

🚀 The GKE Turns 10 Hackathon showcased developer teams building agentic AI on GKE integrated with Google models such as Gemini. More than 4,700 participants from 133 countries produced 133 projects demonstrating multi-agent pipelines, model orchestration, and microservice integration. Grand prize winner Amie Wei’s Cart-to-Kitchen assistant uses GKE Autopilot, the Agent Development Kit (ADK), and Agent-to-Agent protocols to analyze grocery carts and recommend recipes. Google also announced GEAR, an educational sprint launching in early 2026 to help developers learn, build, and deploy AI agents.

🔒 Google released its December 2025 Android security bulletin addressing 107 vulnerabilities, including two zero-days (CVE-2025-48633 and CVE-2025-48572) that are reported to be under limited targeted exploitation. The flaws affect Android 13–16 and include information-disclosure and privilege‑escalation issues; the most critical fix this month is CVE-2025-48631 (DoS). Updates also include critical kernel fixes for Qualcomm and closed‑source vendors, and Samsung has ported fixes. Users should apply updates, keep Play Protect active, or move to supported builds.

🔒 In its December Android Security Bulletin, Google disclosed 107 zero-day vulnerabilities affecting Android and AOSP-based systems, publishing fixes for 51 issues on December 1 and promising the remaining 56 on December 5. Among the patched flaws, two high-severity framework bugs (CVE-2025-48633 and CVE-2025-48572) may be under limited targeted exploitation and affect Android 13–16. The bulletin also lists a critical framework vulnerability (CVE-2025-48631) that can cause a remote denial-of-service without additional privileges. Patches for kernel and third-party components from vendors such as Arm, MediaTek, Qualcomm and others will follow.

🔒 Google released its December 2025 Android security update addressing 107 vulnerabilities across Framework, System, Kernel and components from Arm, Imagination Technologies, MediaTek, Qualcomm, and Unison. Two high-severity Framework defects — CVE-2025-48633 (information disclosure) and CVE-2025-48572 (privilege elevation) — are reported as exploited in the wild. A separate critical Framework issue, CVE-2025-48631, could enable remote DoS without added privileges. Google published two patch levels, 2025-12-01 and 2025-12-05, and users should update promptly when vendors release device-specific builds.

🧾 Google removed a promotional X post for NotebookLM after users noted an AI-generated infographic closely mirrored a stuffing recipe from the blog HowSweetEats. The card, produced using Google’s Nano Banana Pro image model, reproduced ingredient lists and structure that matched the original post. After being called out on X, Google quietly deleted the promotion; the episode highlights broader concerns about AI scraping and attribution. The company also confirmed it is testing ads in AI-generated answers alongside citations.

📅 New research from BitSight reveals that threat actors are exploiting third‑party calendar subscription mechanisms to inject malicious events and notifications directly into users' devices. Attackers are leveraging expired or hijacked domains to host deceptive .ics files and run large‑scale social engineering campaigns that can deliver phishing URLs, attachments, or code execution vectors. While this is not a vulnerability in Google Calendar or iCalendar, the findings expose a neglected security blind spot. Organizations and individuals should strengthen monitoring and protections around calendar subscriptions.