Mobile Platform Scam and Phishing Prevention - Competitive Security Feature Review

Leviathan Security Group (“Leviathan”) was engaged by Google to perform a survey of Google features and functionality that help to protect consumers from scam and phishing attacks on Android Operating System. In particular, Leviathan focused on consumer anti-phishing features around calling and text messages that might seek to impersonate businesses which consumers engage with. Features were evaluated with two major carriers (Verizon and T-Mobile) on the Google Pixel as well as on other popular devices such as a Samsung Galaxy device and an iPhone.

The scope of this project included the two major mobile phone operating systems, on three different hardware platforms. The Android operating system was evaluated on a Pixel 6 and a Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra phone, both running Android 12, while the iOS operating system was evaluated on an iPhone 13 and iPhone 11 running iOS 15.4.1. Our purview included the various ways consumers might interact with scams and phishing attempts, as well as the defenses that these devices and platforms offered to protect consumers.

Our intention in performing this assessment was to quantify the security focused features of the mobile phone platforms.

The full review can be read below: