Google announced on Monday the availability of two new security tools designed to help Google Apps users protect their accounts.
According to the company, the new “Devices and Activity” dashboard and the security wizard for Google for Work accounts should make it easier for IT administrators to manage devices, applications and security settings.
The activity dashboard displays a list of devices and locations from which an account was accessed in the past 28 days. It also shows details on the current device that is logged in to the account. When users detect suspicious activities, they can immediately take steps to secure the account.
The security wizard for Google for Work accounts helps users set up and configure security settings in just a few minutes. Customers can utilize the wizard to provide account recovery information, and review permissions and activity on the account.
“This tool prioritizes all administrator settings for security features that end users are permitted to turn on,” Eran Feigenbaum, director of security at Google for Work, explained in a blog post.
Google is increasingly concerned with security in enterprise environments. Last week, the company’s Macintosh Operations Team released “Santa,” a new blacklisting/whitelisting tool for Mac OS X. Santa is just one of the many unofficial Google products designed to help organizations with managing a fleet of devices running Apple’s operating system.
In October, Google introduced a new account protection mechanism called Security Key. Those who want to use Security Key must acquire a FIDO U2F compliant USB device, and enable the feature on their accounts. Once the system is enabled, customers must connect the USB device to their computer and tap it when prompted in the Web browser in order to log in to their account.
A study released by the company earlier this month shows that account hijacking is a major issue. Researchers have determined that while most takeovers are automated, manual account hijacking is also a problem, with 9 such incidents occurring for every million Google user per day. Phishing websites are highly efficient in such attacks, with a success rate of 45%.
Eduard Kovacs (@EduardKovacs) is a contributing editor at SecurityWeek. He worked as a high school IT teacher for two years before starting a career in journalism as Softpedia’s security news reporter. Eduard holds a bachelor’s degree in industrial informatics and a master’s degree in computer techniques applied in electrical engineering.
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