Connecting Google Workspace

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About connecting Google Workspace email services

You can integrate Perception Point X‑Ray with Google Workspace. This enables Perception Point X‑Ray to protect incoming email to Google Workspace.

Integration with Google Workspace uses semi-inline integration - with no MX record change.

Note: 

  • By default, the Google Workspace integration monitors incoming emails only - not outgoing emails. [Outbound monitoring can't be configured for Google Workspace.]

  • By default, internal email is not monitored. To add monitoring for internal email, contact Perception Point Support [support@perception-point.io]. There may be additional licensing requirements for enabling internal scanning.

  • You can't configure Perception Point X‑Ray to protect personal Gmail accounts. Perception Point X‑Ray is designed exclusively for enterprise platforms such as Google Workspace and Microsoft 365.

Important: Make sure that Google Workspace "comprehensive mail storage" is disabled before implementing an integration with Google Workspace. If "comprehensive mail storage" is enabled, Malicious emails may not be successfully quarantined.To disable Google Workspace "comprehensive mail storage", go to your Google Workspace admin center > Google Workspace > Gmail > Compliance > Comprehensive mail storage, and then clear the Override check box.

A bit more about the Google Workspace integration

Onboarding process

  • Customer onboarding involves adding the domain name and verifying a TXT record in the system.

  • Configuring the required rules and expressions is done manually.

Email flow overview

  • Inbound emails initially route through the Google servers for initial analysis by Google Security.

  • Leveraging Content Compliance Rules, emails that meet specific criteria are redirected to the Perception Point scanner.

Scanning and response

  • Clean: Emails that are assigned the clean verdict are sent back to the Google Workspace servers through the configured next-SMTP for final delivery.

  • Spam: Emails that are assigned the spam verdict are given a "X-PERCEPTION-POINT-SPAM: FAIL" header.

    • In Google Workspace, the Message Tagging header-based system identifies the Perception Point Spam header and redirects the email to the Spam folder.

  • Malicious: Emails that are assigned the malicious verdict do not return to the Google Workspace servers.

    • This proactive prevention stops the malicious emails from reaching the recipient's Inbox.

Which users are protected

When you onboard a Google Workspace email service, you specify which users to protect. You can choose to protect:

  • specific users

  • specific user groups

  • entire domains

After onboarding Google Workspace, you can modify the set of users to protect. For details, see Specifying which users to protect [Google Workspace].

  • Perception Point X‑Ray scans email messages up to a maximum size of 40 MB [including attachments]. Larger email messages are not scanned by Perception Point X‑Ray, and will be delivered to the specified recipients.

    Note:

    • Due to external technical limitations, the 40 MB limitation can't be increased.

    • We recommend that you limit receiving email attachments up to 30 MB in size. Files that are larger than 30 MB should be shared using a different file sharing service, such as Microsoft OneDrive or Google Drive.

The Google Workspace connection procedure

Perform the following procedure to integrate Google Workspace with Perception Point X‑Ray:

See the available video.

Flow chart diagram

See also: