Gmail and Google Calendar are getting the security upgrade Client-side encryption
Google has announced that business customers of its Gmail service will soon be able to take advantage of a new security feature that should make it more difficult for sensitive information to be obtained by unauthorized parties. Both Gmail and Google Calendar are going to be updated to include support for client-side encryption, as was disclosed at Google Cloud Next, the company’s annual showcase for its cloud computing products and services (CSE). Because this encryption will happen on the device used by the end user before the data is sent to the servers in the datacenter, not even Google will have access to the encryption keys needed to decrypt the data.
Gmail will be updated with the new feature before the end of this calendar year, and Google Calendar will follow suit in 2023. To put it simply, the new security feature will make it such that only the sender of an email produced in Gmail and the recipients for whom it was meant will be able to access that email. In addition to this, nobody will be able to view any messages that are intercepted while they are in transit.
Google claims that it has always encrypted data that lands on its servers using “the latest cryptographic standards” to ensure that malicious actors cannot obtain access to critical information. This is to protect users’ privacy. The new approach, on the other hand, will offer organizations direct control over their encryption keys and the identity management provider that is utilized to access those keys.
To this point, client-side encryption has only been made available for the data stored in Google Meet and Google Docs. However, in light of the fact that it is essential to maintain an airtight level of security across the board, Google has decided to roll out the feature to cover additional components of the Workspace productivity suite. Separately, and also in support of this overarching goal, Google has announced that it will be bringing data loss prevention to Chat, enabling admins to put in place controls that protect against leaks in real-time, and adding new data sharing options to Drive, which will give businesses tighter control over how files are shared with other users.