New Machine Learning Behind Early Phishing Detection in Gmail

Cybercrime and state-sponsored advanced attacks continue to cling to email as a primary distribution vehicle for first-stage malware. Phishing campaigns thrive in targeted attacks, and criminals have even resuscitated old-school macro malware in attachments to gain that initial foothold on a victim's computer. Andy Wen of Google's Counter Abuse Technology group said that the new updates focus primarily on early detection of phishing and spam messages that will benefit from a dedicated machine-learning model. The model, Wen said, will delay messages (fewer than 0.05 percent of messages) in order to apply the model and analyze emails. "Machine learning helps Gmail block sneaky spam and phishing messages from showing up in your inbox with over 99.9 percent accuracy," Wen said.