Google to Tackle Spam Mail With Gmail Logo Verification for Senders

• Google has pushed important security updates for Gmail, Chat, the G Suite admin panel, and Meet.
• Gmail will soon get a system called “BIMI,” which will enable brands to authenticate their logos.
• This will pull the rug under the scammers’ feet, and help the community feel safer and more confident.

The days when spammers were able to send emails containing the logos of impersonated brands and entities are coming to an end, as Google has decided to implement a branding verification procedure for the Gmail sender.

It means that people will now be able to feel more confident about the sender’s declared identity and the originating point of an email that has just arrived at their inbox. With so many people working remotely right now, and almost certainly from now on, this step is even more valuable than it ever was.

Google is calling the new system “Brand Indicators for Message Identification” (BIMI), and it’s going to roll it out gradually, starting with a pilot phase in the upcoming weeks. The organizations that would like to authenticate their emails for the benefit of their community can do it through DMARC, validating the ownership of the corporate logos displayed in the messages.

Once all checks are passed, Gmail will display the logos in the avatar location, which is now left blank. The validation will be done with the help of DigiCert and Entrust Datacard, while Google will focus on incentivizing the adoption of BIMI and the DMARC standard. If the pilot is successful, BIMI will become generally available in the coming months, so by the end of 2020, we should have a new reality in Gmail.

Apart from Gmail, Google announced more security features on Meet, Chat, and the G Suite admin console. Starting with Google Meet, the hosts will now have more options around specific safety locks on how attendees join meetings and what interactivity capabilities they will be given. Ejected attendees won’t be able to “bomb” the meetings after they have been ousted, and multiple knocks will now result in an automatic block.

In Google Chat, conversations will now be checked against the “Safe Browsing” real-time data, and if anything suspicious is located, the message will be flagged for the recipient. Things like spammy invitations or links to phishing websites will now be flagged, so abusing Chats won’t be as easy as it used to be all this time.

Finally, the G Suite admin panel now features an automated dashboard for rights management control tied with the Data Loss Prevention rules, giving admins the power to scan all Google Drive files and enable controls for other users through a centralized location.