Google Workspace has plans to beef up the security within Gmail in the coming year, with a focus on making bulk emails less easy to flood users with.
While the brand has begun sharing details of its plans for Gmail, it won’t begin rolling out updates to the email service until February 1, 2024. The advance notice is to prepare users, especially those who navigate the Gmail platform in bulk, meaning over 5,000 messages at once, of the upcoming changes.
The new requirements are intended to make Gmail more secure and user-friendly, and to decrease spam for high-volume users, who might be especially susceptible to phishing and malware attacks, due to not being aware of security holes bad actors can take advantage of.
Last month, for example, a team of hackers was able to infiltrate Microsoft Teams to execute a phishing scam called “DarkGate Loader.” The scheme centers on a bogus Teams message about “changes to the vacation schedule,” but contains an intricate hidden malware when downloaded. Cybersecurity researchers uncovered that hackers were able to access Teams through compromised Office 365 accounts and even found the unsecured email addresses they were able to take over.
Such an incident is exactly why Google Workspace is pushing forward with its new requirements, which include email authentication, the ability to easily unsubscribe, and email assurance. Yahoo is partnering with Google to take on these requirements within its email provider as well, with an aim of making it an industry standard.
Email authentication will require bulk senders to confirm themselves as the owner of the account before continuing to send an email, “following well-established best practices.” This requirement will be set in place as a security measure to find the exploits before hackers can.
Culk users will be able to unsubscribe with one click from commercial emails, with two-day processing.
Email assurance for bulk users will require the rate of spam in an inbox to be capped, resulting in less spam visible within your inbox. Google says this implementation is an industry first.
Google noted while these requirements are already common practices for many Gmail users, their strict implementation will assist in improving the health of the platform from February 2024, moving forward.
The guidance is intended for bulk users with a personal account that ends in @gmail.com or @googlemail.com, or a work or school account from Google Workspace. The latter accounts don’t end in @gmail.com, but are rather associated with an organization, such as .edu.
Apple is less than a day away from launching its highly anticipated OLED MacBook Pro with a touch-sensitive screen. But it appears that the upgrade is going to cost a pretty penny. According to a report by Bloomberg, Apple is reportedly eyeing a starting price of $2,899 for the 14-inch MacBook Pro, while the 16-inch version could start at $3,399 in the US.
"At $2,899, the 14-inch model would mark the highest starting price for a new MacBook Pro model, surpassing the $2,799 Apple charged for a 17-inch version introduced in 2006," says the report. The report claims that Apple is targeting a minimum price hike of $400 for its upcoming redesigned 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models.
I've spent a good amount of time digging into the spec sheet of the new M6 MacBook Pro (14-inch), and for all intents and purposes, this is a classic Apple "chip and connectivity" refresh. It's not a full redesign. The chassis, Liquid Retina XDR panel, speakers, ports, and battery, all of them carry over unchanged.
However, the M6 brings more cores, stronger on-device AI, higher memory bandwidth on the larger configs, and modern wireless. Here’s the practical rundown of what actually improved, and whether those gains are worth your money.
Two new highly requested iCloud plugins just got added to ChatGPT, giving people who rely on Apple’s Mail and Calendar services a way to search emails, check appointments, and manage their schedules directly through the chatbot.
The integration is rolling out to all ChatGPT plans, including the free tier. You can access it on the web, desktop, and iOS.