As Google Workspace continues to grow and evolve, you may notice that new features are rolling out focusing on security for your Google Workspace account and your protection. The biggest change from your perspective is apps that are deemed a security risk will no longer work with your default Google Credentials. Luckily Google has already implemented a solution that will keep your account safe and secure by using App-Specific Passwords you can generate a 1-time use password you will use to log in to whichever app you need to use to send emails that is not your direct Gmail account. If you already have 2 Step Verification turned on an App-Specific Password is the only way to get your 3rd party app to work.
What Are Less Secure Apps?
Google defines a Less Secure App as anything that is not part of the Google ecosystem. This includes software like Quickbooks, Outlook, and Xerox machines, as well as any system that uses your Google Workspace account to send an email.
Why is Google doing this?
For a while now Google has been buffing up their security procedures, they started with 2 step verification, and have made allowances for sending email through Outlook as long as you’re on the latest version. But as hackers, and scammers get more cunning so to must Google beef up their own security. This is not to make your life harder but is in fact to make your account more secure from attacks you cannot see such as ISP and sender spoofing or an attacker gaining access to your full access password from an infected computer and accessing your private Google Workspace account. In late 2019 Google announced that using your regular password for Less Secure Apps would be disabled on a global level by the end of 2020. This has since changed due to the pandemic and as of right now no cutoff time has been issued but they assure customers it’s coming so be prepared. From the time Google announces the cut off you will have 1 year to update all your Less Secure Apps passwords to ensure they still work so don’t sleep on this or you could wake up one day to find your Outlook no longer connects.
How can I make sure my apps continue to work?
Less Secure Apps while deemed a security risk by Google is not a death sentence for your productivity. Thankfully turning on App-Specific Passwords is mostly quick and gives you the added bonus of securing your Google Workspace account by enabling 2 step. If you already have 2-step verification turned on then you can follow the steps below starting at step 4!
How to enable App-Specific Passwords
Thankfully App-Specific Passwords are easy to turn on and get set up in a few simple steps:
- Go to https://myaccount.google.com/ and Login
- Click On Security
- Enable 2-Step Verification under Signing into Google
- Click App passwords (and sign in again)
- On the App Passwords screen use the drop downs to select the following:
- Select app (Select the app this password will be for)
- Select Device (Select the device this app will be for)
- Once you have selected the above settings click the GENERATE button.
- Your new password will be randomly generated and displayed on your screen.
- Copy it down somewhere for safekeeping as you only get to see this once. If you lose this password you’ll need to generate a new one!
- Take your new password and use it in place of your regular password when signing in to a Less Secure App. Using this password will let you continue using the app like normal and the best part is most of the time you will only need to enter it once to have it saved!
If something isn’t working or you need a hand please call us at 780-201-2200 to and we can help get you set up!
