Google Announced the Pixel 11 With Their New Titan M3 "Quantum-Safe" Secure Boot

Google announced its new Pixel 11 series of phones that bring with them a big security boost in the form of the new Titan M3 security chip that supports post-quantum cryptography for secure boot.

In their announcement, they describe how the Titan M3 and new Tensor G6 SoC work in tandem to secure the phone:

As technology evolves, so do the threats. Google Pixel is engineered specifically to help safeguard your most sensitive information from advanced attacks today and from risks like attacks by quantum computers in the future. Our new Titan M3 security chip and custom Tensor G6 processor seamlessly integrate to form our most robust, proactive defense system yet, bringing post-quantum cryptography to secure boot on your device.

The previous Titan M2 processor came out back in 2021 with the launch of the Pixel 6, although there have likely been changes and updates to the M2 chip on subsequent Pixels.

Leaks from the much-maligned Cellebrite, who sell devices to exploit phones and extract data to law enforcement, show that they struggle to bypass the hardware security features of Pixels from the 6 onward, mainly thanks to the Titan M2.

Pixels are also the only devices to support the security-hardened GrapheneOS currently, although a partnership with Motorola will bring a device from that vendor into support in the near future.

A peruse of the tech specs for the new phones shows no support for the infrared hardware that would be necessary to match the iPhone's secure Face ID despite rumors that the Pixel 11 would support it.

In light of developments in quantum computing, Google earlier this year introduced a 2029 deadline for migrating to post-quantum cryptography (PQC) in order to secure our data against attacks from quantum computers, which could theoretically break the classical encryption we use every day once one powerful enough exists.

Given the short deadline, Google has been working hard at beefing up its cryptography with PQC as much as possible, beginning all the way back in 2016.

The latest development saw Google adding support in Android for quantum-safe signatures so that app developers can sign their apps without needing to make their own PQC cryptographic implementations.

The new quantum-safe secure boot in Pixel 11 phones seems like a continuation of their work on moving Android into being fully quantum-safe.