Tag Archives: Gmail

Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Gmail Users Will Get Updated Spelling and Grammar Assistance

There are changes afoot in Gmail designed to help improve the quality of your writing using new AI features.

These features will auto correct simple spelling errors and offer suggestions to improve your grammar.

As the company notes in a recent blog post on the matter:

“If you’re working against deadlines to write a lot of emails daily, correct spelling and grammar probably isn’t top of the mind.  These capabilities can also help you write and edit with more confidence if you’re a non-native speaker.”

Currently, the new system only supports English, but that’s almost certain to change in the months ahead.  Google plans to roll out the enhanced features beginning on August 20th for G Suite users who are on rapid-release domains.  Anyone on a scheduled release domain will start seeing the new features on September 12th.

Here’s a quick summary of what you can expect:

  • Common spelling mistakes will simply be auto corrected.
  • Words that are auto corrected will feature a dashed line beneath the correction so you’re aware of it.
  • Grammar mistakes will feature a blue squiggly line beneath the words to call your attention to them.
  • Less common spelling mistakes will feature both a blue squiggly line and a red line beneath the word in question.

Google is undoubtedly correct that their changes will be most beneficial to harried office workers facing tight deadlines and non-native English speakers. However, there aren’t many people who won’t see at least some benefit from the new features.

These are good changes that will no doubt prompt other companies selling competing products to follow suit, which will slowly and steadily raise the bar.  Kudos to Google for the coming developments.  If you’re anxious to try them out, you won’t have long to wait.

0
Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Email Providers Found To Have Signature Vulnerabilities

A team of security researchers have uncovered a serious flaw in several major email clients you need to be aware of.

The flaw allows hackers to fake verified signatures, which gives their phishing and other email-based attacks the appearance of legitimacy.

 

According to research conducted by the team, the following email clients are vulnerable to this exploit:

  • Thunderbird
  • Apple Mail with GPGTools
  • iOS Mail
  • Microsoft Outlook
  • Mailpile
  • Roundcube
  • K-9 Mail
  • Airmail
  • MailMate
  • Evolution
  • KMail
  • GpgOL

What The Risks Are

Ostensibly, an email signature is supposed to provide end-to-end authenticity, legitimacy, and integrity.  When you receive an email containing a verified signature, it’s a sign that it’s from a safe, trusted source. Unfortunately, now that several of the largest and most widely used email clients have been found to be vulnerable to signature spoofing attacks, that’s out the window.  If you’ve been in the habit of scanning for a verified signature and then, upon finding one, assuming the email is safe, it’s simply no longer safe to do that.

The research team described their research in part, by saying the following:

“In our scenario, we assume two trustworthy communication partners, Alice and Bob, who have securely exchanged their public PGP keys or S/MIME certificates.  The goal of our attacker Eve is to create and send an email with arbitrary content to Bob, whose email client falsely indicates that the email has been digitally signed by Alice.

Our attack model does not include any form of social engineering.  The user opens and reads received emails as always, so awareness training does not help to mitigate the attacks.”

That’s dark news indeed, and even worse, a raft of CVE’s have been opened to account for and fix the vulnerabilities that make this type of signature spoofing possible. However, there are no easy fixes here, and there’s no timetable at this point from any of these email providers on when or if the issues will be resolved.

0
Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

New Malware Hidden In Emails About Flu Protection

Fear is a fantastic way to spread malware, which is why hackers around the world are using the fear of a flu pandemic as a hook to install a nasty strain of ransomware.

Researchers at MyOnlineSecurity have detected a cunning email campaign which spoofs the Centers for Disease Control and bears headlines warning of a Flu Pandemic.

The message is short and to the point, explaining that a flu pandemic has been detected and urges recipients to read the attached document for further instructions to protect their families and help keep it from spreading.  The instructions also helpfully include the note that in order to view the document properly you’ll need to click the ‘Enable Editing’ button.

The attachment bears the name “Flu Pandemic Warning,” which reinforces the message itself. It’s an excellent choice from the perspective of the hackers, because they know that a relatively high percentage of those who receive this message from what appears to be a trusted agency will open it.

Unfortunately, the moment they open the file and click to enable editing, they doom themselves.  The word document is poisoned and contains scripts that will install the GrandCrab v5.2 ransomware on the victim’s machine, which will promptly lock their files and demand a hefty payment.

While this is a nasty and especially effective campaign, it’s not the only one that the creators of Grand Crab are engaged in.  Recently, the Chinese government issued their own alert, stating that beginning on March 11, various government departments were bombarded with phishing-style emails intent on installing ransomware on their servers.

All that to say, vigilance is more important now than ever.  There’s no telling how long this campaign will run, or what may come after it, but one thing you can be sure of.  They’re not going to stop.

 

0
Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Right Clicking In Gmail Will Unveil Its New Features

When is a right click more than just a right click?  When Google reveals its latest changes to Gmail, of course!

The tech giant has recently announced that they’re going to be overhauling Gmail’s right click menu options. This will enhance its value by adding more and better functionality, with an eye toward improving the overall user experience.

The current right click menu offers the following functionality:

  • Move to Tab
  • Archive
  • Mark as Read
  • Delete

The coming changes will expand to include:

  • Search options
  • Reply and Forward functionality
  • Snooze
  • Mark as Unread
  • Movement Options
  • Labeling
  • The option to open an email in a new tab

You won’t have to take any action to gain the benefits of these new features.  The pending update will make them available to all Gmail users automatically.

In terms of a time frame, Rapid Release domains will begin receiving the update on February 11th 2019 although it can take up to fifteen days for the new features to become visible. The roll-out to the general public is slated for February 22nd, although it could be up to three days before the new menu options become visible to all users.

These are fantastic additions and we can hardly wait to start using them.  Odds are excellent that Google’s recent changes will have ripple effects that extend far beyond Gmail, too.  The reality is that menu functions tend to get taken for granted.  At this point, they’re so well established and entrenched that most people don’t even consider the possibility of tweaking them to improve overall functionality.

That’s unfortunate, but given the coming changes, the hope is that it will prompt other email providers and software vendors in general to go back to the drawing board and reassess their time-honored menu options to see what other improvements can be realized.

0
1 2 3