New Gmail Protections Announced: What It Means for Email Security and Your Company
Communicating via email is a part of most of our daily lives, but it doesn’t come without challenges. Whether it’s personal communications or more professional interactions, with the ever-evolving landscape of online threats, ensuring that our email inboxes remain safe and free from phishing, spam, and malware is crucial.
Google is committed to this cause. The internet giant recently introduced new requirements for bulk email senders for its Gmail solution to enhance email security further. This development will be enforced beginning in February 2024 and promises to create a safer and less spammy inbox for Gmail users. Let’s look closer at these new Gmail protections, what they mean for email senders, and how, alongside Libraesva’s email security services, they can help you achieve your email security goals.
Validation: the Bedrock of Email Security
One of the most important parts of email security is verifying the authenticity of email senders. With so many websites and email domains, it can be challenging to establish whether an email is genuine. Gmail began requiring email senders to authenticate their emails in 2022 to address this issue. This simple yet effective measure reduced the number of unauthenticated messages by 75%. It also helped declutter inboxes and block billions of malicious messages, resulting in a safer and more easily navigable email experience.
New Requirements for Bulk Senders
Bulk senders–defined by Google as entities that send over 5,000 messages to Gmail addresses in a single day–will be subject to new requirements to strengthen email security.
The new requirements include:
- Email Authentication: Bulk senders must implement strong email authentication following established best practices. This is a significant step towards closing the loopholes exploited by attackers. Authentication standards like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC will be mandatory, which will help in the fight against email forgery and impersonation.
- Easy Unsubscribes: Gmail recipients must be able to unsubscribe from commercial emails with a single click. Large senders must provide this feature and process unsubscription requests within two days. This makes the process easy and seamless for users and ensures their preferences are respected.
- A Clear Spam Rate Threshold: Gmail will enforce a clear spam rate threshold for all senders (bulk or otherwise) to prevent inboxes from being overwhelmed with unwanted messages. This industry-first measure will reduce spam and facilitate a more enjoyable email experience for users.
Support from Industry Partners
Google’s initiative to strengthen email security has garnered support from industry partners, including Yahoo, which announced similar restrictions on the same day as Google. The collaboration between industry leaders demonstrates a shared commitment to email security across the board.
Both firms described strong beliefs that all users deserve a more secure email environment, with fewer unwanted messages and a better user experience.
Libraesva’s Role in Email Security
While Google’s new requirements for bulk senders represent a significant step forward in email security, more is needed. Reducing unwanted email is helpful but does not remove all email security threats. Libraesva offers a comprehensive suite of email security solutions that provide multiple layers of protection against a wide range of email security threats.
For instance, Libraesva’s anti-phishing solutions can help organizations identify and block sophisticated phishing attempts, ensuring that malicious emails are intercepted before they reach recipients’ inboxes. Moreover, Libraesva’s advanced threat detection capabilities can help organizations stay one step ahead of evolving email threats, including zero-day attacks and advanced malware.
While built-in email protections can easily grow stale, Libraesva quickly and automatically learns the legitimate communication patterns specific to each sender and recipient, making it easy to spot anomalous emails. These capabilities are powered by our Adaptive Trust Engine, which uses machine learning and AI, along with historical data analysis, to provide a solution that evolves alongside the pace of growing email threats.
Industry Leaders Pave the Way, but Email Security is Up to Everyone
Email security is a shared responsibility across email service providers, senders, and recipients. Google’s 2024 requirements for bulk senders represent a significant step towards creating a safer email environment. By implementing strong email authentication, simplifying unsubscription processes, and enforcing spam rate thresholds, Gmail aims to enhance the email experience for its users.
But these out-of-the-box efforts won’t remove the threat of malicious emails. Libraesva’s solutions provide comprehensive protection against email threats, helping organizations ensure their communications remain secure and reliable. With the new out-of-the-box protections and more complete email security solutions like Libraesva, your organization can rest easy that it’s well-protected from even the largest of email security threats.
