Should You Be Sending That? Google Bulks Up Gmail for Work Security

Business users hoping for a bit more Gmail security are about to get it.

Google is adding new functionality to its Data Loss Prevention (DLP) feature for Gmail business customers.

Going forward, IT admins can opt to enable optical character recognition (OCR), which will check scanned attachments for information your IT department might not want escaping the confines of its servers. “With the new OCR enhancement, DLP policies can now analyze common image types, and extract text for policy evaluation,” Google said. 

In addition, Google has boosted its “detectors” to safeguard personally identifiable information across more countries, and “provide better coverage for HIPAA data.” Google will let IT administrators set thresholds for what may be a risky event, like sharing hundreds of credit cards over email, and what may not, like sharing a single card.

The new security features are part of a broader push by Google to enhance Gmail’s security and specifically, the Data Loss Prevention platform the company launched last year.

Google has been making serious inroads into the enterprise with its Google Apps for Work platform. The service, which is similar to Microsoft’s Office 365, provides companies with the ability to use all of Google’s services, including Gmail, Google Docs, and others, across the enterprise. Most importantly to IT workers, it provides a wide range of tools to govern how employees can use those services.

The new Gmail features are rolling out now to Google Apps for Work Unlimited customers. The feature should be available to everyone within the next few days.

Should You Be Sending That? Google Bulks Up Gmail for Work Security