Gmail is one of the most extensively used free email services and Google has decided that it will setup some additional security measures to warn users of unencrypted connections. Phishing and email scams are not something new and have been around the corner since long however, Google’s new feature would warn users of unsecure connections thus reducing the chances of being scammed and phished.
This new security feature will however warn users of unencrypted communications between other providers since Gmail to Gmail communication is usually encrypted. The new feature is part of Google’s efforts to ramp up the security, which is also the heart of its Safer Email Transparency report, which analyses email security beyond Gmail servers.
The finding further elucidates how email is more secure today than what it was two years ago. The survey was based on the study of tampering with requests in Active Internet Regions. The second step involved unearthing DNS servers publishing bogus routing information to email servers on a lookout for Gmail. Google says that. “The servers in question are like misleading phone numbers in the directories for a given name”. Although such attacks are pretty rare, they are something to be worried about as the attacker will be able to edit the message before it is relayed.
As we outlined earlier, the Gmail to Gmail communication are less worrisome but the ones with other providers can be vulnerable, this is the very reason Google is developing in product warning systems to alert the users of potential dangers. These warning systems will be baked into Gmail in within next two months and this is sure to be followed by several other features to minimise the security risks since the proverbial “Prevention is better than cure” holds good almost everywhere.