Advanced phishing and malware protection

As an administrator, you can protect incoming mail against phishing and harmful software (malware). You can also choose what action to take based on the type of threat detected. For example, you might choose to move suspicious content to your Spam folder, or choose to leave it in your inbox with a warning. All the security settings can be tailored for different users and teams using organizational units.

By default, Gmail displays warnings, and moves untrustworthy emails to the spam folder. Using the settings in this article helps you identify additional unwanted or harmful emails.

Note: If you use these advanced phishing and malware settings and dynamic email for your organization, learn how compliance rules are applied to dynamic messages.

Advanced security settings

• Attachments—Protection against suspicious attachments and scripts from untrusted senders. Includes protection against attachments types that are uncommon for your domain—these can be used to spread malware.

• Links and external images—Identify links behind short URLs, scan linked images for malicious content, and display a warning when you click links to untrusted domains.

• Spoofing and authentication—Protection against spoofing a domain name, employee names, email pretending to be from your domain, and unauthenticated email from any domain. Unauthenticated emails display a question mark next to the sender’s name. Spoofing protection can be turned on for private groups, or for all groups.

With advanced settings, you can:

• Automatically turn on and apply future recommended settings. This ensures maximum protection for email and attachments for your domain.

• Provide the strongest level of protection for a domain or organizational unit by turning on all security options.

• Customize security settings by checking only the options you want to turn on. Unchecking all options turns off all advanced security settings for the domain or organizational unit.

• Specify an action for each security option you turn on. If you don’t select an action, the default action is applied to the security option.

Keep in mind:

• Other spam settings—Generally, these advanced security features work independently of other spam settings you might have previously turned on. For example, even if you've listed a domain as a safe sender in spam settings, the enhanced security features are still applied.

• Warning banners—Certain Spam setting options prevent warning banners for possibly malicious messages. When you select either of these Spam setting options, Gmail never displays warning banners: Bypass spam filters and hide warnings for messages from senders or domains in selected lists and Bypass spam filters and hide warnings for all messages from internal and external senders. Warning banners (yellow box) appear only in Gmail web. Third-party apps do not display a warning banner.

• Quarantine action—When you select Quarantine for any of the advanced security settings, the quarantine you select applies only to incoming messages. This is true even when the quarantine you select specifies actions to take on outgoing messages. Allowlist settings don't override the Quarantine option. 

How selected actions impact users

This table shows actions that you, as the administrator, can select for each advanced security setting, and the impact to users of each action.

Action	Impact to user
Warning	Messages are delivered to the user's inbox. The user sees a warning banner about the message. Users can open and read the message with this option. See: "This message could be a scam" warning Open & download attachments in Gmail
Move email to spam	Messages are delivered to the user's spam folder. Users can go to the spam folder and open and review spam messages. Users can mark messages as "not spam" if applicable. Users don't see banners with this action.
Quarantine	When this action is selected, users don't see anything. Messages are sent to admin quarantine and the admin reviews them to determine whether or not they are safe, and then "Allow" message to be delivered to users' inbox. Users don't see banners with this action. See: Set up and manage email quarantines

Apply advanced security settings

Turn on attachment protection

Google scans all messages to protect against malware, whether or not attachment security settings are turned on. Enforce extra, specific actions for certain types of files with the settings in this section. These settings protect against senders with no prior Gmail history or with a low sender reputation.

1. Sign in to your Google Admin console.

   Sign in using your administrator account (does not end in @gmail.com).

2. In the Admin console, go to Menu  AppsGoogle WorkspaceGmailSafety.
3. In the Safety section, scroll to Attachments.
4. Select the setting and action you want to apply to incoming emails. (Details below)

Attachments settings	Actions
Protect against encrypted attachments from untrusted senders Protect against attackers who use encrypted attachments, which can't be scanned for malware.	Keep email in inbox and show warning (Default) Move email to spam Quarantine
Protect against attachment with scripts from untrusted senders Protect against documents that contain malicious scripts that can harm your devices.	Keep email in inbox and show warning (Default) Move email to spam Quarantine
Protect against anomalous attachment types in emails Protect against attachment file types that are uncommon for your domain. Uncommon and archaic file types can be used to spread malware. You can allowlist uncommon file types that you approve and that are regularly sent to your domain. Messages with allowlisted file attachments are delivered to the recipient's inbox. Enter file extensions in the Allowlist the following uncommon filetypes field without a preceding period and separated by commas. For example:  arj, iqy, par	Keep email in inbox and show warning (Default) Move email to spam Quarantine
Apply future recommended settings automatically When we add new, recommended security settings for attachments, those settings are turned on by default.

Turn on suspicious email link protection for IMAP users

If users in your organization send and receive email using supported, third-party IMAP email clients, we recommend you turn on link protection for IMAP clients.

When link protection is on for IMAP clients, clicking a link in a recent message starts a malicious link check. If no malicious links are detected, the recipient is taken to the destination. For older messages, a window might appear, and you can tap or click to open the link.

Turn on external images and links protection

1. Sign in to your Google Admin console.

   Sign in using your administrator account (does not end in @gmail.com).

2. In the Admin console, go to Menu  AppsGoogle WorkspaceGmailSafety.
3. In the Safety section, scroll to Links and external images.  
4. Select the desired security settings. (Details below)

Links and external images settings
Identify links behind shortened URLs	Allow discovery of harmful links hidden behind shortened URLs.
Scan linked images	Allow scanning of images referenced by links to find hidden malicious content.
Show warning prompt for any click on links to untrusted domains  Not available for IMAP/POP email client	Gmail displays a warning when you click a link to untrusted domains in any email message. If this feature isn't on, warnings only appear for clicks to untrusted domains from suspicious emails.
Apply future recommended settings automatically	When we add new, recommended security settings for links and external images, those settings are turned on by default.

Turn on spoofing and authentication protection

1. Sign in to your Google Admin console.

   Sign in using your administrator account (does not end in @gmail.com).

2. In the Admin console, go to Menu  AppsGoogle WorkspaceGmailSafety.
3. In the Safety section, scroll to Spoofing and authentication.
4. Select the settings and actions you want to apply to incoming emails. See details below.
    

Spoofing and authentication settings	Actions
Protect against domain spoofing based on similar domain names Protect against incoming messages from domains that appear visually similar to your company's domains or domain aliases.	Keep email in inbox and show warning (Default) Move email to spam Quarantine
Protect against spoofing of employee names Protect against messages where the sender's name is a name in your Google Workspace directory, but the email isn't from your company domain or domain aliases.	Keep email in inbox and show warning (Default) Move email to spam Quarantine
Protect against inbound emails spoofing your domain Protect against potential Business Email Compromise (BEC) messages not authenticated with either SPF or DKIM, pretending to be from your domain.	Keep email in inbox and show warning (Default) Move email to spam Quarantine
Protect against any unauthenticated emails Protects against messages that are not authenticated. Messages must be authenticated (by any domain) with either SPF or DKIM (or both).	Keep email in inbox and show warning (Default) Move email to spam Quarantine
Protect Groups from inbound emails spoofing your domain Protect your Google Groups from inbound emails spoofing your domain. You can apply this setting to all groups or to private groups only.	Keep email in inbox and show warning (Default) Move email to spam Quarantine
Apply future recommended settings automatically When we add new, recommended security settings for spoofing and authentication, those settings are turned on by default.