Google Workspace low security app cutoff is nearly here

4 September 2024, 18:23 published

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Applications determined by Google to be not secure enough will have Workspace access disabled as of September 30.

Google’s previously announced cutoff for “less secure apps” (LSA) aims to lower the number of third-party applications that do not use secure authorization from Workspace accounts.

Only third-party applications that use OAuth will be trusted to remain connected to Workspace.

Admins beware

OAuth is an authorization protocol that allows you to use third-party applications without sharing your credentials with them, by providing an authorization token to allow interaction.

Google’s intention behind the cutoff of LSAs is to reduce the number of third-party apps that have access to your username and password to prevent attackers that compromise your credentials from having easy access to your account and networks.

As a result, CalDAV, CardDAV, IMAP, POP and Google Sync will all require OAuth to use, rather than just a password. Those using Thunderbird, the mail app for iOS or MacOS, or Outlook for Mac will simply need to re-add your account and sign in using Google with OAuth.

“Admins will need to push a Google Account using their MDM provider, which will re-add their Google accounts to iOS devices using OAuth,” Google said in the announcement.

For those using Outlook 2016 or earlier, it’s time to upgrade to Microsoft 365, as it will be impossible to log in to older versions of Outlook without OAuth. Similarly, any third-party application that does not use OAuth will no longer work, so you may need to consider an alternative app.