A new layer of data access security for Google Apps

Helping businesses, schools and organizations keep information safe is critical, and we've been providing Google Apps customers with a spectrum of capabilities to help ensure that only authorized users have access to information accessible from the cloud, including SSL options, single sign-on capabilities, and administrative controls for how widely users can share and publish information from Google Docs, Google Sites and Google Calendar.

Today we're adding a new layer of security: the ability for administrators to set password length requirements and view password strength indicators to identify sufficiently long passwords that may still not be strong enough.


What's more, because the Google Account authentication system continuously sees new variations of password attacks from around the world, we can assess password strength in real-time and help administrators spot passwords that were relatively secure in the past that are more vulnerable to the latest patterns of attacks.

Premier and Education Edition administrators can access these features from the administrative control panel under 'Advanced Tools' > 'Advanced Password Settings'.

To help their users choose strong passwords, admins can share our password selection tips.

Posted by Eran Feigenbaum, Director of Security, Google Apps