Security News > 2021 > July > Gmail increases email security by adding support for BIMI

This effective indicator that these types of email communication are coming from that specific legitimate source is made possible by Gmail's added support for the Brand Indicators for Message Identification standard.

About BIMI. BIMI is an email specification that enables the use of brand-controlled logos within email clients.

"For the brand's logo to be displayed, the email must pass DMARC authentication checks, ensuring that the organization's domain has not been impersonated," the BIMI AuthIndicators Working Group explained.

The BIMI brand indicator currently appears next to company emails sent to Yahoo Mail, AOL, Fastmail and Pobox email addresses, and will now start appearing in Gmail.

"BIMI leverages Mark Verifying Authorities, like Certification Authorities, to verify logo ownership and provide proof of verification in a VMC. Once these authenticated emails pass our other anti-abuse checks, Gmail will start displaying the logo in the existing avatar slot," Neil Kumaran, Senior Product Manager of Counter-Abuse Technology at Google, and Wei Chuang, Senior Software Engineer at Gmail Security, explained.

"BIMI promotes another layer of security to Gmail by requiring strong authentication and verification of logos before they're displayed in the Gmail avatar slot. Strong authentication increases confidence in the source of emails and provides recipients with a more immersive experience. Further, this helps email security systems filter spoofed, phishing emails from legitimate messages," the Google Workspace team added.

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