Adobe’s next step forward in its content authenticity efforts is here. The Adobe content authenticity app is now in public beta, available for anyone to try. With the app, you can attach content credentials to all your digital images and photos. 

Content credentials are a kind of invisible digital signature that’s added after a project is finished. Right now, you can add them to images, with support for videos and audio coming soon. Besides your name, content credentials can include your social media handles, personal website and can disclose any AI usage. You can also use these credentials to signify that you don’t want your work to be used to train AI models.

One of the best parts about the app is that you don’t need a Creative Cloud subscription to use it. So even if you don’t want to pay for Adobe programs, you can quickly sign up for a free Adobe account and use the app to create content credentials and apply them to your digital work. 

Creators who post their work online know that it’s all too easy for people to steal, misattribute or erase the original creator from a piece of work. That’s where the new partnership with LinkedIn comes in to give content credentials a little more security. 

Currently, LinkedIn offers three types of verifications on its platform: identity, workplace and educational. You likely already have at least one if you’re a semiregular LinkedIn user. You can get a workplace verification by using your work email, or you can get an identity verification using a form of government-issued ID. LinkedIn’s new «Verified on LinkedIn» program will help people use these verifications in other corners of the internet. If you’re verified on LinkedIn, those credentials will appear in your Adobe content credentials account. You’ll also be able to apply your LinkedIn verifications on TrustRadius, G2 and UserTesting.

«Using Verified on LinkedIn, users will be able to use the verifications they’ve completed on LinkedIn to show who they are across the different online platforms they use, boosting trust, confidence and credibility,» Oscar Rodriguez, vice president of trust at LinkedIn, said in a statement.

When you’re inside the content authenticity app, you can batch apply credentials to up to 50 images at a time — a highly requested feature that came out of the private beta, Andy Parsons, senior director of content authenticity at Adobe, told CNET in an interview. You can also use the content credentials app to inspect tags added to other images. The content credential browser extension is also available, if you want the ability to view credentials wherever you scroll online.

Content provenance, or how we know where a piece of content originates, is more important than ever in the age of AI. The content credential app is the result of Adobe’s involvement with a larger group called the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity, or C2PA. The group advocates for an open technical standard to help people easily see where an image, video or another piece of content came from. Other members include Google, Meta and OpenAI — all heavyweights in the generative AI market. LinkedIn is now also joining, but its parent company, Microsoft, is a longtime member. 

For more, check out our hands-on testing of the new Photoshop iPhone app and the fight between Adobe and creators over the future of AI.

Gmail users are again falling victim to a sophisticated phishing attack that is locking victims out of their accounts. While these sorts of attacks are nothing new, cybercriminals now have AI on their side to help them come up with new ways to trick people into falling for their traps. 

Right now, that trickery is taking the form of an email that looks convincingly like it’s from Google, with an urgent call to action regarding a legal matter and a link for more information, according to a report from Forbes published on April 21. 

But if you interact with the email, your credentials could be stolen, your password changed and new security measures put in place to keep you from getting back into your account. If you find yourself in this boat — from this phishing attack or another — hope isn’t lost. If you have the proper measures in place and you act quickly, you can regain access.

A Google spokesperson told Forbes that a fix for this particular scenario will soon be deployed.

Read on to find out what to do in case your Gmail account is hacked and you can no longer log in. We’ll also throw in some additional security measures so you can potentially make your account less vulnerable. 

For more, don’t miss Android security and privacy features you should know about.

If your Gmail account was compromised, do this

This particular attack isn’t necessarily special, but it does show that cybercriminals are relentless in looking to gain access to user accounts by creating increasingly sophisticated methods of attack. And it is all too easy to fall victim to phishing attacks. Gmail is the most popular email service, so it makes sense for the bad guys to prioritize it. Google even has a quiz to help you spot these types of emails. 

If you had your account hacked, regaining access can be tricky. What information and recovery measures were in place will play a factor in your success and in the time it could take to recover your account. 

Start by going to https://accounts.google.com/signin/recovery and answer the questions to the best of your ability. If you had any additional emails or phone numbers associated with your account, this information may be able to help you, even if it’s been removed from your account. Google has additional tips that may help you when completing the account recovery module, like making sure you’re completing these steps in a familiar location and with a familiar device. 

After some digging, including going through a series of help requests about a compromised account, the writer of the Forbes report was able to receive a callback from Google directly. A key factor here, though, was that it required the Google One Premium subscription that offers additional storage, AI features and other benefits.

Prevention is the best method: How to secure your Gmail account

There’s a reason why you’ll find more support articles from Google that will show you how to prevent bad actors from getting into and wreaking havoc on your Gmail account than you’ll find articles about recovering from a phishing attack. That’s because it’s much easier to prevent a hack than it is to prove you’re the one trying to regain access to your account. 

If you’re luckily reading this as a preventive measure to protect your Gmail account, here are things you can and should do to keep your account safe. 

One of the easiest ways to increase the security of your account is adding a recovery email and phone number to your account account. Here’s how to do it.

• From your computer, head to myaccount.google.com and login to your account
• Click on the Security tab on the left side panel
• Under the How you sign in to Google section, click Add an email address next to Recovery email. You can add a phone number in this section by clicking 2-Step Verification phone.
• Both of these methods will require verification before they’re added to your account.

Additional security measures you should enable 

By adding a recovery phone and email to your Google account, you’ll save yourself a lot of time if you need to confirm your identity to regain access to your account, but that’s essentially the bare minimum. There’s still so much more you can do to protect your Google account, which will in turn protect your Gmail account. 

True, additional security can come at the expense of convenience. Some of the methods may be slightly less secure but keep your convenience balanced, where others may be much more secure and the convenience dial turned all the way down. 

The security focus is primarily going to be enabling two-step verification when you sign into your Google account or any of its apps, like Gmail.

Two-step verification options

There are a handful of ways to add a second layer of security when signing into your Google account. You can enable one or more at a time. 

• Passkeys — You can save a passkey to your device that can be used instead of logging in with a password. Passkeys, which are secure, FIDO credentials, can be saved with password managers on computers or mobile devices and just need to be verified with biometrics or a PIN. 
• Security Key — This is probably the most secure but most inconvenient method. It will require you to purchase a physical security key and insert it into the device you’re trying to log into. There are several NFC-enabled security keys available as well. 
• Two-step verification phone — With this enabled, you’ll be sent a code via text message that you can input into the device you’re signing into. SMS has its own security concerns, though. 
• Authenticator app — This method requires a one-time setup for your account. Once it’s enabled, you’ll be asked to provide a temporary code from your authenticator app in order to log in. 
• Google prompt — This method is very convenient. You’ll receive a popup on your phone from Google that you’ll need to tap to confirm it’s you that’s logging into your account on a new device. 
• Backup codes — This method will generate a series of unique codes that you store in a safe place and can use when you get locked out of your account. 

Consider the Google Advanced Protection Program 

Google offers an advanced protection program that doubles down on security. The above two-step verification methods will typically be enough for you to skip your login credentials, but the Google Advanced Protection Program requires you to use a passkey or security key and your login credentials to access your account. Google encourages journalists, activists, business executives and people involved in elections to enroll, but it’s a free program that anyone can use. 

For more, check out our Cybersecurity hub.

Looking for the most recent Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

Hey, is that the Bat-Signal shining over today’s Connections puzzle? Bat-fans, the blue group is going to be a breeze for you. Read on for clues and today’s Connections answers.

The Times now has a Connections Bot, like the one for Wordle. Go there after you play to receive a numeric score and to have the program analyze your answers. Players who are registered with the Times Games section can now nerd out by following their progress, including number of puzzles completed, win rate, number of times they nabbed a perfect score and their win streak.

Read more: Hints, Tips and Strategies to Help You Win at NYT Connections Every Time

Hints for today’s Connections groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group, to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Color that’s the opposite of black.

Green group hint: Make a salad.

Blue group hint: Like the Riddler.

Purple group hint: Can you hear me now?

Answers for today’s Connections groups

Yellow group: Things that are white.

Green group: Kinds of lettuce.

Blue group: Batman villains.

Purple group: They have literal/idiomatic ears

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is things that are white. The four answers are baby powder, milk, polar bear and snow.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is kinds of lettuce. The four answers are butter, iceberg, leaf and romaine.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is Batman villains. The four answers are Bane, Joker, Penguin and Scarecrow.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is that they have literal or idiomatic ears. The four answers are cornfield, musicians, pitchers and walls.

Quick tips for Connections

#1: Say the clue words out loud, pausing before and after each. That helps you hear the words in the context of a phrase. The Connections editors love to group words together that are used in similar phrasing, like ____ Up.

#2: Don’t go for the obvious grouping. These editors are smart. Once, they offered SPONGE, BOB, SQUARE and PANTS in the same puzzle. None of those words were in the same category. If you like, hit the «shuffle» button to give yourself a different perspective on the words.

#3: Break down any compound words and look for similarities. «Rushmore» was once in a puzzle where the connection was that each word started with the name of a rock band.