Google Chat Gets Warning Banners to Protect From Phishing Attacks

Google announced on Thursday that it will now display warning banners against potential phishing and malware attacks coming from personal accounts. In order to prevent phishing, Google has introduced this tweak for Google Chat in its latest expansion. During its 2022 I/O developer conference, Google discussed several security measures it has implemented to enhance user safety, including warnings against potential security issues and recommendations to fix them.

Google also laid out other plans for security measures, like expanded two-step verification, ad customization, and more data security, as per Google.

Google’s new warning banner first appeared in Gmail’s workspace account to show attempts to seduce someone with links that could be used for malware, phishing, or ransomware. In late April, Google expanded the banner of Google Docs to inform users that malicious files were suspected in some Google Workspace apps (documents, sheets, slides, drawings) regardless of where the link was opened.

The new feature is being rolled out over the next couple of weeks, and will be available for both personal Google accounts and for Google Workspace customers.

Late last month, Google expanded the warning banners for potentially malicious Google Drive files. While previously it displayed the banners when users were attempting to open such a file within a Google Drive account, or from within a Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, or Drawings file, Google has now brought the feature to the file-level — which means that if a user tries to open such a potentially malicious or dangerous Google Docs, Sheets, or Slides file on the Web, they will be served a warning of the dangers ahead.