Google has announced that Google Drive’s warning labels are coming to Docs, Sheets and Slides to help protect users from malicious or dangerous files when using its online collaboration tools (opens in new tab).
With more employees working from home (opens in new tab) than ever before, Google Workspace (opens in new tab) and other collaboration tools have proved invaluable. However, cybercriminals are well aware of this fact which is why they’ve begun targeting users through the search giant’s office software (opens in new tab).
(opens in new tab)For instance, earlier this year security researchers at CheckPoint-owned Avanan discovered that cybercriminals have begun utilizing comments (opens in new tab) in Google Workspace apps to send malicious links to unsuspecting users. Likewise, security researchers at Volexity recently discovered a custom malware designed for macOS (opens in new tab) which is capable of taking control of a user’s Google Drive account.
In an effort to further protect users from these kinds of attacks, Google is now bringing warning banners to Docs, Sheets and Slides.
Google Workspace warning banners
According to a new post (opens in new tab) in the Google Workspace blog, Google is extending Drive’s warning banners to the file-level to keep users safe from malware (opens in new tab) and other malicious files.
Going forward, Google Workspace users will now see warning banners when they open a suspicious Google Docs, Sheets, or Slides file on the web. One such warning label that users may encounter reads: “This file looks suspicious. It might be used to steal your personal information.”
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As warning banners will help protect Google Workspace users from a variety of online threats, there is no admin control for this feature nor is there any end user setting for it. Instead, it will automatically be applied to Docs, Sheets and Slides files over the course of the next 15 days.
It’s worth noting that warning labels are available to all Google Workspace customers as well as legacy G Suite Basic and Business customers. However, Google could decide to make this feature available to those with personal Google Workspace accounts at a later time.
