Configure Google Workspace security settings
Google Workspace includes built-in security controls that filter email before it reaches your inbox. Enabling these settings during setup maximizes what Google catches before Material ever sees a message. Configure them in the Google Workspace Admin console alongside your Material deployment.
Inbound email security
Enhanced pre-delivery message scanning
When Google detects suspicious content in an incoming message, it delays delivery slightly to run additional security checks before the message reaches the recipient.
To enable enhanced pre-delivery message scanning:
Sign in to the Google Workspace Admin console.
From the left navigation, click Apps > Google Workspace > Gmail > Spam, Phishing and Malware.
Select your top-level organization.
Scroll to Enhanced pre-delivery message scanning, then check the box to enable it.
Click Save.
Advanced phishing and malware protection
This setting applies Google's detection models to analyze message content, attachments, and sender behavior. It includes three categories of protection: Attachments, Links and external images, and Spoofing and authentication. For each option, you can set the action to warn the recipient, move to spam, or quarantine.
To enable advanced phishing and malware protection:
Sign in to the Google Workspace Admin console.
From the left navigation, click Apps > Google Workspace > Gmail > Safety.
Enable options under Attachments, Links and external images, and Spoofing and authentication based on your organization's needs.
Click Save.
Custom spam filters
By default, Google applies a standard spam filtering threshold. You can set a stricter threshold that catches more spam, though it may also flag more legitimate messages.
To set a stricter spam filtering threshold:
Sign in to the Google Workspace Admin console.
From the left navigation, click Apps > Google Workspace > Gmail > Spam, Phishing and Malware.
Scroll to Spam, then click Configure.
Enter a name for this filter.
Check Be more aggressive when filtering spam.
Click Save.
Calendar invitations
By default, Google adds incoming calendar invitations to your users' calendars on their own, whoever sent them. Tightening this closes off calendar invitations as a way into your environment.
To change which invitations are added automatically:
Sign in to the Google Workspace Admin console.
From the left navigation, click Apps > Google Workspace > Calendar > Advanced settings.
Select your top-level organization.
Scroll to Add invitations to Calendar, then select Invitations from known senders or Invitations users have responded to via email.
Click Save.
For the trade-off between those two options, the equivalent setting in Microsoft 365, and what Material remediates on its own, see calendar invite attacks.
Recommend the Gmail Promotions tab to your users
The Gmail Promotions tab sorts marketing and promotional email into a separate category, out of the Primary inbox. Gmail's spam model is per user, so when your users actively sort messages into Promotions or mark them as spam, Gmail learns their preferences faster and more accurately than a single org-wide classifier.
You can't enable this centrally. Share the steps below with your users and encourage them to use the tab actively.
To enable the Promotions tab in Gmail:
Open Gmail.
Click the Settings gear, then click See all settings.
Under Inbox type, select Default.
Click Customize.
Check Promotions, then click Save.
Once enabled, users can move messages between tabs to help Gmail refine its sorting over time.
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