Keep in mind that the e-mail it is really important for security and privacy. If someone managed to get into your account, they would have a tool to be able to recover passwords for many other services. It could also impersonate your identity, access sensitive information, see your contacts… In short, it is key to protect it.
Google improves Gmail security
But what exactly are these changes? From Google, they have announced that they are going to implement changes that will improve the protection of some sensitive functions of Gmail used, especially, by companies and organizations, but also for home users. It will allow you to avoid certain attacks that were increasing a lot.
For example, an attacker could use email filtering and forwarding options. They could forward certain important e-mails and make them hidden from the user’s eyes. They could do this with important emails from Amazon, from a bank or from Google itself, where they warn that an intruder has been able to break into the account.
They already introduced certain security improvements in Google Workspace, precisely to prevent attacks of this type, and now Google extends it to other Gmail features. They indicate that they have selected three sensitive actions of Google mail and now they will receive additional protections, to improve security.
This is email filters, when users go to create, edit or import filters. They also introduce forwarding improvements, when users go to add new forwarding addresses in the settings. IMAP access, when users enable it from settings, also receives security enhancements.
Users, when a change occurs in any of the sections we have mentioned, receive an alert. Now, they will receive a verification message before saving the changes. google could request two-factor authentication to make these adjustments. As we have mentioned, they are an option that hackers have had to launch different attacks.
From Google, they will evaluate the risk in each case to determine if it is necessary or not to show an additional verification message. They would use things like location, IP address, browsers, and other features, to make that assessment.
Business and home users
These changes are going to arrive in the next few weeks. They will affect business accounts, but also home users. After all, anyone can be a victim of computer attacks. For this reason, from Google they want to enhance the security of Gmail so that it is more reliable to use it.
This does not mean that there are no security risks, since you can always fall victim to very varied attacks. For example, they could launch a Phishing attack, which consists of sending an email with malicious links so that you click and log in where you shouldn’t. An important problem and one that you should avoid.
Ultimately, Gmail is going to be more secure. You will be able to see how your security increases and the risk of being a victim of a wide variety of computer attacks decreases. However, you should always avoid spam and protect your account from attacks that can cause serious problems.
