Google Expanding Phishing Warnings Across Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Drawings

Google will now display a message in the form of a banner when opening a potentially malicious file from the internet on Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Drawings, the company announced. This banner was already implemented through Google Drive but is now utilized on the company’s other workstation apps.

First spotted by The Verge, Google’s latest update to its productivity apps should help in avoiding potentially malicious links and harmful attacks. As the report notes, Google’s stated the banner already appeared when opening Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Drawings links in its January 20th announcement post. However, it appears as though this was a typo. Instead, the banner appears on “links from Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Drawings” files.

Of course, this won’t be a permanent solution for combating malicious attacks or phishing scams. However, in Google’s evolving battle against harmful links, the banner can help educate and warn users. Some phishing attacks will send a user to a dodgy page asking for banking or personal information.

Google confirms that all Google Workspace users will have access to this feature alongside legacy G Suite Basic and Business customers. The feature will be rolling out over the next few weeks to all users.