Gmail is one of the most popular email services out there, and Google is taking extra steps to try to prevent malicious individuals from targeting Gmail users with malware and phishing campaigns. The company is rolling out a tiny feature to web and Android users of Gmail that might make a world of difference when it comes to online security.
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Starting this week, the company will flag any email senders that can’t be authenticated. In practice, you’ll see a question mark in place of the sender’s profile photo, corporate logo, or avatar. That should help you tell the difference between actual emails from companies and financial institutions and hackers who try to impersonate them to steal login credentials via sophisticated phishing scams. Here’s how that question mark should look like:
The feature will be rolled out gradually to web users and on Android, Google said in a blog post.
Additionally, the web Gmail version is getting one more security feature that should prevent you from opening known malicious web addresses. The warning below will appear every time you try clicking on a malicious link and are an extension of the Safe Browsing protection that’s already built into web browsers.
Google notes that not all affected email will be dangerous, but these warnings should at least raise your attention that something phishy might be going on.
