What is the purpose and impact of the 'external' label in Google Workspace emails?
Summary
What email marketers say8Marketer opinions
Email marketer from Barracuda explains that external email identification improves security awareness and promotes cautious behavior when dealing with potentially suspicious emails. It encourages users to verify the sender and content.
Email marketer from Security StackExchange suggests that the external label is primarily a security measure intended to make users think twice before acting on emails coming from outside their organization. It acts as a constant reminder of the risk of external threats.
Email marketer from StackExchange explains that the main purpose of the 'External' label is to provide a visual cue to users, prompting them to exercise caution when interacting with emails from unknown or unfamiliar sources. It is used as a reminder not to trust blindly.
Email marketer from Hornetsecurity explains that visually distinguishing external emails helps users identify potential threats by prompting awareness and scrutiny. It improves security awareness by training them to differentiate between internal and external communication and is a countermeasure against social engineering.
Email marketer from Reddit explains that the purpose of the 'External' label is to alert users to be cautious when interacting with emails from outside their organization. It's a security feature designed to reduce the risk of phishing and business email compromise attacks.
Email marketer from Mailfence suggests that the external email tag enables employees to promptly recognize potentially harmful emails. By adding a warning banner to externally sourced emails, individuals are primed to critically evaluate the message's legitimacy and refrain from divulging sensitive details, which ultimately helps defend against sophisticated phishing schemes.
Email marketer from BleepingComputer shares that Gmail has started adding an "External" warning to emails that originate from outside of your organization. This is designed to prevent phishing attacks by making it easier to spot emails that are not who they say they are. The banner is designed to alert the user to be careful about clicking links, opening attachments, or responding to the email.
Email marketer from Spiceworks details that the impact of this warning is to make employees more cautious and verify the sender's identity before interacting with any external email. The aim is to prevent phishing attempts or malware infections.
What the experts say4Expert opinions
Expert from Word to the Wise responds that implementing external email warnings helps alert users to potential phishing attacks from external senders, thereby prompting increased vigilance and caution when handling such emails.
Expert from Email Geeks shares that Google tried a banner approach previously, but spammers copied the banner into the message body. The current labeling is harder for spammers to fake.
Expert from Email Geeks explains that the "external" label in Google Workspace is a visual indicator to let the recipient know that the sender is outside their organization. It appears when sending to a new or formerly uncontacted individual and is an attempt to stop Business Email Compromise.
Expert from Email Geeks shares his experience with the external banner being annoying and taking up a lot of space on the screen when typing.
What the documentation says5Technical articles
Documentation from Mimecast suggests that the ultimate objective of the external tag is to minimize email-based threats. By flagging messages from untrusted sources, this mechanism promotes the cautious handling of sensitive information and thereby diminishes the likelihood of successful phishing attempts, data breaches, and other email-borne attacks.
Documentation from Proofpoint indicates that labeling external emails is a security best practice. It helps users distinguish between internal and external communications, reducing the likelihood of falling for phishing scams and other email-based attacks.
Documentation from Google Workspace Admin Help explains that the external sender identification setting in Gmail adds a warning to emails from senders outside of your organization. This helps users identify and avoid responding to potentially harmful messages. It highlights messages from senders who aren't in your contacts.
Documentation from VadeSecure claims tagging external emails can reduce the impact of phishing attacks. By tagging external emails, it helps educate users about the potential risk, promotes vigilance, and decreases the potential financial or reputational damage caused by successful scams.
Documentation from Microsoft indicates that marking external emails is a way to combat phishing. When enabled, messages received from outside of your organization are displayed with a special visual cue, such as the word [External] added to the subject line. This helps users to identify messages that might be suspicious.