Google has recently improved the security of the Google Pixel 9 and Pixel 9 Pro, making it one of the most secure phones ever made.
The Google Pixel 9 and Pixel 9 Pro are easily two of the best phones that you can currently buy, rivaling the iPhone 16 and Samsung Galaxy S24, and it seems Google is improving them even more. Google phones have always been pretty secure, but Google has massively improved this thanks to a change to the phone's baseband. If you haven't heard of a baseband, it essentially handles how your phone communicates with a cellular network.
This baseband is one of the main points of security in smartphones and is the main focus for criminals looking for exploits. Google has been steadily working to improve its baseband, and a recent report from Android Police broke down precisely what made the Pixel 9 series secure.
The changes that Google has made all sound quite technical, but each is designed to protect you from all forms of malicious attack, including the recent malware attacking Android devices. These changes combined easily make the Pixel 9 series one of the most secure devices.
Firstly, Google improved the Bound Sanitizer, which prevents code from accessing the phone's memory, making it much harder for attackers to run malicious code. This will be a relief to any Pixel 9 Verizon users who found a hidden app that left them vulnerable. Google has also improved the integer overflow sanitizer to ensure that numbers are correctly interpreted, which means attackers can't affect any of the phone's internal calculations.
Google also added stack canaries, which essentially function as digital tripwires, to help detect bad code as it enters your phone and improve control flow integrity. This change helps to restrict code to specific paths, making it much harder for hackers to change to subvert the flow of information in the device. Hopefully, this will help defend against any apps hiding malicious malware.
Finally, Google improved the Auto-initialized stack variables, which helps the device to use all the memory it has access to, removing the threat of hackers using unused data to leak information. This is a big win for anyone concerned that another major leak, like the recent leak of background check data, can happen again.
If you prize security in a phone, which you should do, then the Google Pixel 9 has much to offer you. However, we would also recommend investing in some of the best antivirus software and one of the best VPNs to keep your phone safe.
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