Google does mention in a blog post that less than 0.1 percent of Gmail users will be receiving this warning, however, it highlights the importance of the warnings because of the fact that the people getting them are often journalists, policy-makers, and activists. Safe Browsing warns you if a site is known to attack users with phishing, malware and unwanted software downloads, and asks if you want to proceed.
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Google for a while now has been able to identify such government-backed hackers, and notify potentially affected customers so they can take immediate action.
“Given the relative ease of implementing encryption and its significant benefits for users, we expect to see this progress continue”, wrote Nicolas Lidzborski, Gmail security engineering lead, and Jonathan Pevarnek, engineer with Google tech incubator Jigsaw. Now when you try to click a link Google knows is bad from your Gmail inbox, it will warn you before you even get to the browser; a helpful feature for those who may not be using Chrome. Gmail’s new warning will be a full page and will direct users to enable two-factor verification and set up a security key to protect their information.
Google has been increasing its Gmail security in recent months.
The new full-page warning, which could replace or be shown in addition to the previous kind of notification, states more detail on the possibility that the government is targeting the user’s account.
As part of Safer internet Day, Google also announced it will reward users with 2GB of free Drive cloud storage for those that complete its online security check. The improved safety announcement also includes plans to extend Safe Browsing features that will include pop-up and full-page warnings when Gmail users click on unsafe links. Ultimately, that’ll help keep Gmail more secure.
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Finally, Google stated it is teaming up with Comcast, Microsoft, Yahoo! and other industry partners to draft a proposed standard for ensuring emails are delivered only through encrypted channels. Some 44 days since the implementation, users are sending 25 percent more email over encrypted connections, according to Google.
