According to Google software engineer Ela Iwaszkiewicz, Google will now provide three enhancements to Gmail messages that provide users with a more robust defense against phishing.
“Starting today, Gmail will automatically display more information about the origin of certain messages you receive so you can be better informed and protect yourself from getting tricked”, Iwaszkiewicz wrote in a post on Google’s official Gmail blog.
The first new feature includes displaying the full email address of any sender that does not appear in the recipient’s Gmail contacts list. Also included will be full email address information when messages are sent on behalf of another party – and example Google provides is when people share news stories from websites via a “share this story” link. In these cases, the complete email address of the sender will be displayed along with the website URL it was forwarded from.
Finally, Google said it will evaluate a message’s “authentication data” to determine if the message comes from a “spoofed” Gmail address. If the web email service believes this is the case, it will display a prominent warning at the top of the message stating that the correspondence may not have been sent by the person or organization noted as the sender.
Google has good reason to continue beefing up Gmail security regarding phishing attempts, Infosecurity notes. Earlier this month the company disclosed a targeted phishing attack against Gmail users, among them several senior US officials, Chinese political activists, and journalists.