G Suite Adds Advanced Password Controls

The G Suite team announced the addition of advanced password controls which allow admins to require and enforce extra rigorous requirements for stronger passwords.

Because having a strong passwordis one of the most critical measures one can take to defend against hacking attempts, most organizations expect their employees to use strong passwords that follow a specific set of requirements.

However, until now, G Suite admins were only able to use password length as the only requirement they could enforce for all company users.

"With this launch, we’re making it possible to enforce additional rigorous password requirements for increased security and to meet their compliance needs," said G Suite team's post .

Moreover, "Admins can already see which passwords in their domain are weak; enabling this setting will allow admins to force users with weak passwords to change them."

It's important to also mention that the enforcement of a stronger password is a setting that it is off by default and that admins will have to manually enable it if needed.

Password strength controls

Google also provides a "Create a strong password & a more secure account" support page designed to give tips on how to create strong passwords and on how to keep passwords secure.

G Suite admins can now also choose to enforce the new password requirements either at the next login or when the user changes his password.

Furthermore, admins are also able to prompt users to change passwords after a given number of days, going from 30 days to a full year, or set it to never ask for a password change if they don't deem it necessary.

Last but not least, G Suite now also makes it possible for admins to prevent block password re-usage, effectively eliminating the risk of having users switching between the same two passwords.

"Each of these settings can be found in the Admin console under Security > Password management," according to the G Suite team. "As part of the launch we are also moving the password length (minimum and maximum) settings from the Basic Settings card to this new Password management card."

This new feature is launching to both Scheduled and Rapid release tracks, will be rolled out to all G Suite admins during the next 15 days and it will be available to users of all G Suite editions.