Google has announced that business users of its email service will soon get a new security feature that will help prevent data from falling into the wrong hands.
As revealed during Google Cloud Next, the company's annual cloud computing showcase, Gmail and Google Calendar are set to receive client-side encryption (CSE) support.
With this system, the data will be encrypted on the end user's device before being transmitted to the data center servers, which means that not even Google will have access to the encryption keys needed to gain access.
The new feature will come to Gmail by the end of the year and to Google Calendar in 2023.
Gmail security
At a basic level, the new security feature means that emails composed in Gmail are readable only by the sender and intended recipients. It will also prevent someone from reading messages that could be intercepted in transit.
Google says it has always used "the latest cryptographic standards" to encrypt data reaching its servers, to ensure bad faith actors can't access sensitive information. However, the new system will give companies direct control over their encryption keys and the identity management provider used to access those keys.
"Above all, a secure environment is a requirement, regardless of your location or device," Google said, referring to the broader range of security features announced in Cloud Next.
"We also want to help customers strengthen the privacy of their data, while also meeting compliance and data sovereignty requirements."
Until now, client-side encryption was available exclusively for Google Meet and Google Docs data, but given the importance of tight security at all levels, Google is now extending the feature to other parts of Google's productivity suite. Workspace.
Separately, also in support of this overall goal, Google announced that it will bring data loss prevention to Chat, allowing administrators to implement controls that protect against leaks in real time and new data sharing options for Drive that will give companies stricter control. . about how files are shared.
TechRadar Pro asked Google when customers can expect to receive these additional security updates.