Google adds new security updates to Gmail

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Keeping company data secure is priority one, and that starts with protecting the tools that your employees use every day. We’re constantly adding security features to help businesses stay ahead of potential threats, and are excited to announce new security features for Gmail customers, including early phishing detection using machine learning, click-time warnings for malicious links, unintended external reply warnings and built-in defenses against new threats.

New machine learning models in Gmail to block phishing

Machine learning helps Gmail block sneaky spam and phishing messages from showing up in your inbox with over 99.9 percent accuracy. This is huge, given that 50-70 percent of messages that Gmail receives are spam. We’re continuing to improve spam detection accuracy with early phishing detection, a dedicated machine learning model that selectively delays messages (less than 0.05 percent of messages on average) to perform rigorous phishing analysis and further protect user data from compromise.

Our detection models integrate with Google Safe Browsing machine learning technologies for finding and flagging phishy and suspicious URLs. These new models combine a variety of techniques such as reputation and similarity analysis on URLs, allowing us to generate new URL click-time warnings for phishing and malware links. As we find new patterns, our models adapt more quickly than manual systems ever could, and get better with time.

New warnings for employees to prevent data loss

When employees are empowered to make the right decisions to protect data, it can improve an enterprise’s security posture. To help with this, Gmail now displays unintended external reply warnings to users to help prevent data loss. Now, if you try to respond to someone outside of your company domain, you’ll receive a quick warning to make sure you intended to send that email. And because Gmail has contextual intelligence, it knows if the recipient is an existing contact or someone you interact with regularly, to avoid displaying warnings unnecessarily.

Protecting your business with the latest security advancements

Security threats are constantly evolving and we’re always looking for ways to help people protect their data. With new built-in defenses against ransomware and polymorphic malware, Gmail now blocks millions of additional emails that can harm users. We classify new threats by combining thousands of spam, malware and ransomware signals with attachment heuristics (emails that could be threats based on signals) and sender signatures (already marked malware).

Outside of today’s updates, here are a few other security advancements we’ve made within Gmail to make sure you stay protected:

• Hosted S/MIME, to encrypt email while in transit
• Data Loss Prevention for Gmail, to protect your most sensitive information
• Alerts when TLS encryption between mailboxes is not supported or when a message can’t be authenticated, so you’re aware when you email someone whose mailbox does not support encryption

Whirlpool, PWC and Woolworths are just a few companies that rely on Gmail to securely collaborate. Learn more.

Written by: Andy WenSenior
Product Manager, Counter Abuse Technology

Source: Keeping your company data safe with new security updates to Gmail