Could Google be forced to sell off some of its most significant assets?
Hackers and fraudsters alike are always on the lookout for any major breaking news story that can drive people into clicking links they otherwise might swing wide of. News stories don’t come much bigger than the U.S. Department of Justice filing a 32-page document that calls for, among other things, the possibility of Google selling off parts of the business such as Android, the Chrome web browser and even the Play Store.
The Department Of Justice Versus Google
As reported by Forbes Aug. 05, a D.C.-based judge, Amit Mehta, found that Google had acted as a monopolist in an opinion that sided with the Department of Justice along with 11 states. The ruling found that Google had exercised monopolistic power over markets and charged “supracompetitive prices for general search text ads,” to lead to anticompetitive behavior.
Now U.S. attorneys have filed a brief in which they present a number of proposals to prevent and restrain Google from monopolistic practices. The brief stated that “plaintiffs are considering remedies that would limit or end Google’s use of contracts, monopoly profits, and other tools to control or influence longstanding and emerging distribution channels and search-related products.”
The Security Impact Breaking Up Google Would Bring
Breaking up Google in such a fashion, enforcing a sale of some kind involving assets such as Android and Chrome, is by no means a done deal. This story is going to run and run, and while it does, the opportunity for nefarious activity off the back of it will continue.
And phishing campaigns that leverage the uncertainty of Google’s future, as well as capitalizing on the interest surrounding the story, are not the only security threat that raises its ugly head. Lee-Anne Mulholland, Google’s vice-president of regulatory affairs, has warned that “severing Chrome and Android would jeopardize security and make patching security bugs harder.” Features like Chrome’s Safe Browsing, Android’s security features, and Play Protect for the Play Store all benefit from threat information and intelligence signals from a diverse range of Google products and the long-established threat-detection expertise that ride alongside.