Google Announces New S/MIME Migration Options for Gmail Client Side Encryption (CSE)

Three important events have happened over the past few years as Google works to evolve its Client Side Encryption (CSE) capabilities in an effort to distinguish Google Workspace from Microsoft 365:

1. June 2021: Google introduced CSE for Workspace so customers could use their own encryption keys to encrypt their own data stored in Drive — including Docs, Sheets, and Slides — ensuring no one (not even Google) has unauthorized access to sensitive information stored in the Google Workspace cloud. 
2. December 2022: Google expanded CSE by introducing S/MIME within Gmail, giving customers the native ability to send and receive encrypted emails.
3. Yesterday, Google announced a new Gmail migration utility that converts plain-text emails into S/MIME encrypted messages.

At Virtru, we’re excited to see the continued evolution of Google CSE at a time when more and more customers are seeking cloud collaboration solutions to meet heightened data privacy requirements. By bringing CSE capabilities to the entire Workspace suite of applications, including Gmail, Google is introducing another choice for email encryption – and customer choice is always good. 

But what’s the best email encryption choice for your business?  The answer depends on your requirements.

Choosing Your Path for Gmail Data Security

With regard to email encryption for Gmail, there are two primary solutions:

1. CSE for Gmail based on S/MIME
2. Virtru for Gmail integrated via Chrome Extension

CSE for Gmail Based on S/MIME

Despite well-documented overhead and complexity associated with S/MIME certificates and user training, CSE for Gmail offers a compelling email encryption solution for customers with predictable email collaboration patterns whereby messages are commonly exchanged with a finite population of contacts.

To benefit from Google CSE for Gmail, customers must choose a third-party encryption key management provider. Virtru is a proud Google CSE key management provider. 

Virtru for Gmail Integrated via Chrome Extension

Virtru for Gmail is currently used by more than 5,000 Google Workspace customers, including some of the world's largest banks, healthcare firms, technology firms, defense contractors, state governments, universities, and federal agencies. Virtru is well-suited for organizations with dynamic collaboration patterns and for IT teams that prefer to avoid management overhead and complexity associated with S/MIME certificates.

Virtru’s end-to-end encryption for Gmail is deployed as a Chrome extension, making it fast and easy to onboard high volumes of employees at once. The user experience within Gmail doesn’t change, as the extension offers users a certified “easy button” for encrypting email messages.

Learn more: Virtru for Gmail and encryption key management for Google Workspace CSE

Regardless of the Path You Choose, Virtru Is Here for You

If CSE for Gmail and S/MIME is right for your business, then you can count on us to provide world-class key management with the Virtru Private Keystore.

If you decide that CSE for Gmail and S/MIME are not the right fit for your email encryption needs, Virtru stands ready to support you with a product that integrates elegantly with Gmail and is loved by thousands of customers. 

Choose your journey: Two paths for Gmail encryption. Click the image to view full size.

You can learn more about many of Virtru’s Gmail encryption customers by reading and listening to their stories in the Virtru Resource Library. 

Want to discuss how Virtru can strengthen data security for your Google environment? Contact our team to set up a demo.