Google ups ante to fight phishing attempts

In a bid to protect Gmail users from ever increasing spam and phishing messages, Google has introduced new security updates. The new features come in the wake of a recent phishing attempt where a bogus Google Docs file tried to gain access to users' Gmail accounts.

To start with, the search engine company has brought in a machine learning model that can keep spam out of your inbox and detect phishing messages with 99.9 percent accuracy. According to Google, almost 50-70 percent of Gmail messages are spam.

The machine learning system works with Google Safe Browsing to selectively delay emails (less than 0.05 percent of them) for added phishing analyses. It then generates URL click-time warnings for suspicious links.

The second feature is primarily aimed at helping businesses protect their data. As per this update, G Suite users now trying to reply to someone outside of their company will get a warning asking if they really want to send the message. But users' existing and regular contacts will be picked up by Gmail so you're not bugged with excessive warnings.

Last but not least, Google is also now adding new click-time warnings that will notify users when they are about to click on a malicious link that could lead to a malware site.