Gmail To Include Phishing Warning

Android devices to warn users of potential attacks.

Following the events of the past week involving a high-speed worm that traveled the net as a Google Doc, the company has a new announcement for its users. Gmail for Android will now have a warning feature that lets users know about the potential for a phishing attack coming through as one of the messages.

Move in response to 50% increase in global ransomware.

Unfortunately, the new feature wouldn’t have prevented anyone from opening the Google Doc scam last week, as that one traveled by rooting out victims’ contacts lists and appearing to come from them. The recipients, believing one of their contacts had just shared a document with them, were all too quick to click on the button and invite the worm in.

Sheer volume of spa

Just because the new phishing warning wouldn’t have stopped this one incident, that doesn’t mean it’s not a really useful tool given the sheer volume of spammy emails that invade email inboxes every day, all of which could potentially contain malicious content. The new feature is built around Google’s existing safeguard that protects users from websites that have harmful code; if users click on an emailed link – a common method of forcing a virus download – that is suspected of being malicious in some way, a popup warning will inform the user of the suspected findings.

Old but successful

While new methods of cybercrime crop up practically every day, the success rate of the “old school” methods like Word-based macros that contain viruses and harmful links in emails and messages means they’re not going away anytime soon. The recent Verizon data breach report proves it: there was a 50% increase in global ransomware attacks last year over the previous year, and the most common method of installation is through phishing attacks.

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