Google rolls out new Gmail security that warns of unsafe links

Google's Gmail will get a new security update on Android and the web, where it will warn users if they received a message with a dangerous or malicious link.

Google's App Security blog posted that users would be warned if they received a message that could not be authenticated with Sender Policy Framework (SPF) or DKIM. Users would see a question mark appear next to the sender's profile photo, corporate logo or avatar, highlighting a potential risk.

Googles said in its blog post, ''On the web, if you receive a message with a link to a dangerous site known for phishing, malware, and Unwanted Software, you'll begin to see warnings when you click on the link.''

According to Google, the warnings were an extension of the Safe Browsing protection available to various web browsers today.

The blog post, however, said not all affected email might be dangerous, but it would still ask users to be extra careful when replying to links in messages where the authentication was not clear. According to Google, the initial rollout would be slow, but it would impact all users.

Google, which had always taken security seriously on Gmail, had stated it would start warning users about potential attacks from governments.

Earlier this year, Google introduced a new security feature to Gmail - an upgrade to its Data Loss Prevention service with the inclusion of Optical Character Recognition (OCR).

The feature reads email attachments and is intended to prevent a leak of confidential documents, and was meant only for Google Apps for Work Unlimited customers.

Prior to that Google started warning Gmail users about emails from unencrypted sources, flagging those email providers that did not user the Transport Layer Security (TLS) standard.