Gmail gets visual cues to alert users to suspect emails

PanARMENIAN.Net - In celebration of Safer Internet Day, Google on Tuesday, February 9 added two new security features to Gmail, which earlier this month passed 1 billion users. While Gmail supports encryption in transit using TLS and automatically encrypts incoming and outgoing emails when it can, that goes out the window if the sender’s or receiver’s email provider doesn’t, VentureBeat reports.

“Of course, it takes at least two people to send and receive an email, so it’s really important that other services take similar measures to protect your messages — not just Gmail,” Google wisely explained.

You’ll see the broken lock icon if you receive an email from a non-encrypted source. Furthermore, if you receive an email that can’t be authenticated with either Sender Policy Framework (SPF) or DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM), Gmail will show you a question mark in place of the sender’s profile photo, corporate logo, or avatar.

“Not all affected email will necessarily be dangerous,” Google noted. “But we encourage you to be extra careful about replying to, or clicking on links in messages that you’re not sure about. And with these updates, you’ll have the tools to make these kinds of decisions.”