Less Secure Apps Securing Your G Suite Account with Restricting Access

A Less Secure App (LSA) is an offline client that connects to Google accounts using only username and password verification for access. As a G Suite administrator, you can only allow your users to use external apps that connect to Google accounts via a less secure app which makes user accounts prone to hacking.

To configure your Google account for an offline client you need to select “Enforce access to less secure apps for all users (Not Recommended)”. But this setting “Enforce access to less secure apps for all users (Not Recommended)” will disappear from the Google Admin console by the end of this year.

If you have selected the “Enforce access to less secure apps for all users” setting for your domain when this change takes place, it will automatically select “Allow users to manage their access to less secure apps”. You will no longer have this option in your Domain.

Admin and end-users will be impacted by this change. But the importance of this change is to protect your Google account from the hackers. Whenever possible, users should connect to their accounts through OAuth, a more secure method. OAuth permits third-party apps to use Google account information without seeing a user’s password, and it gives admins security controls like the ability to whitelist certain apps as well as offers scope-based account access. 

How to Start

Admins: No action is required, but Google recommends the following.

-If you have currently selected “enforce access” to LSAs in your domain, change your setting to “disable access or allow users to manage their access” as soon as possible, as LSAs can make Google accounts vulnerable to hackers.

-Encourage your users to use OAuth-based protocols (like OAuth-based IMAP) to access non-Google apps access to their Google accounts, including their email, calendar, and contacts.

-Prepare your users and internal help desks for this change.
 

On/off by default:

This setting will be deleted for all domains by default.

-If you have selected the “Enforce access to less secure apps for all users” setting for your domain when this change takes place, “Allow users to manage their access to less secure apps” will be automatically selected.

-If you have selected the “Allow users to manage their access to less secure apps” setting for your domain when this change takes place, it will remain selected.

-If you have selected the “Disable access to less secure apps for all users” setting for your domain when this change takes place, it will remain selected.