Google is testing a new security feature in Gmail that consists of assigning official logos to trusted senders. This is a way to combat phishing scams that, in most cases, find an easy way in fake email campaigns, with malicious links. These messages are, as a general rule, broadcast under false identities, which are similar to the branding of well-known brands, as a way of deceiving victims.
This system, in practice, is a verification badge. It works based on the Brand Indicators for Message Identification (BIMI) standard and will be tested with several companies over the next few weeks.
According to Google, BIMI authentication can make recipients of messages more confident about the material they just received and will help them distinguish between true and false senders.
In addition to this standard, the company will also start working with a technology called DMARC, which promises to prevent perpetrators of computer attacks from forging the names of senders in emails – a common technique used to mask phishing messages.
Verification badges will be awarded when the brand and Google itself validate the legitimacy of a given address, so the process can take a few days. The company hopes, however, to make this system accessible to several other companies in the coming months.
