Since mid-2021, Gmail has been inviting companies to use secure authentication systems and verify their identities. brand logo if they want it to appear as an avatar next to their email. As we stated at the time, the purpose of this measure was to protect the service against the increasing number of phishing attacks.

Now, the Mountain View giant has announced that it will take the verification system for companies one step further. When receiving messages from a sender verified with the aforementioned system, recipients will also see a blue checkmark that will help them “identify messages from legitimate senders against impersonators”.

Gmail now also has a blue verification check

Google explains that when we pass the course through the blue Gmail verification check, we’ll see a note saying “the sender of this email.” Confirmed”. Although this function is for companies, it will be available in all mail services (Workspace and personal accounts) of the Mountain View giant in the coming days.

This Gmail verification system is based on the Brand Indicators for Message Identity (BIMI) standard. This means that companies that want to use it must meet two important security requirements. On the one hand, we have domain-based authentication (DMARC) that prevents attackers from impersonating a company or falsifying the domain.

Blue Gmail verification check

On the other hand, use a brand logo accompanied by the VMC certificate. This type of certificate can only be requested by trademarks in the intellectual property offices of a number of countries. This means that technically only legitimate companies and organizations can obtain it and display it, for example, in their outgoing emails.

As we can see, the blue verification check is no longer exclusive to social networks. Along with its presence on platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter, the latter has also reached Gmail, with many changes to its system. We’ll have to wait and see if this solution can achieve its goal: reduce spam, prevent identity theft, and increase user trust.

Images: solen faysa | Google

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