Security

Security Overview

This module will walk you through some of the security features that are available to you as the Cloud Identity admin. Make sure that you explore the Help Center articles that are linked below.

Help Center Articles

Review the following Help Center Articles in order to learn more about Security. We will be using these throughout these exercises to both guide our directions. You will see them referenced throughout the following exercises.

Navigate the Security Center

Introduction to Exercise

The Security center gives you a security dashboard and security health recommendations. The security center brings together security analytics, actionable insights and best practice recommendations from Google to empower you to protect your organization, data and users.

• See the Security Center articles to learn more.

Exercise Scenario

In this exercise, you'll navigate to the security center to view and understand your security dashboard and security health recommendations.

Exercise Directions

Access the Security Center dashboard

1. Sign into your Cloud Identity Admin Console as the administrator user using your administrator account name and password.

2. Click the Security icon.

3. Click on Dashboard. From here, you can get overview of key security metrics for:

Failed device login attempts — This report will show you details of failed login attempts on your corporate devices during a specified time range

Note: See the Failed device login attempts report article to learn more.

Compromised device events — This report will show you details of compromised device events.

Note: Use this report to view device IDs, device owners, and the timestamps of compromised devices. See the Compromised device events report article to learn more.

Suspicious device activities — What suspicious device activities have been detected? Details of suspicious activities on your corporate devices during a specified time range

Note: Use this report to view device IDs, device owners, and the timestamps of the suspicious device activities. See the Suspicious device activities report article to learn more.

OAuth grant activity report — This report is ranked by the growth in grants to apps in the current time period compared to the previous time period.

Note: Use this report to monitor the OAuth grant activity in your organization by app, scope, or user. See the OAuth grant activity report article to learn more.

OAuth grants to new apps report—This report shows the new apps that have been provided OAuth grants in the given time period compared to the previous similar time period.

Note: Use this report to monitor the OAuth grant activity in your organization. See the OAuth grants to new apps report article to learn more.

See Security dashboard to learn more.

Access the Security Center health page

1. From the Admin console dashboard, click the Security icon

2. Click on Security health. The security health page enables you to monitor the configuration of your Admin console settings and stay ahead of potential threats by examining security analytics and flagging threats.

• From here you can monitor the security health of the following settings:

Device management settings - you can monitor the configuration of the following Device management settings:

  • Mobile management

  • Blocking of compromised mobile devices

  • Mobile password requirements

  • Device encryption

  • Mobile inactivity reports

  • Auto account wipe for Android

  • Mobile application verification for Android

  • Installation of mobile applications from unknown sources

  • External media storage

Security settings - you can monitor settings related to security and protection of user accounts:

  • 2-step verification for users

  • 2-step verification for admins

  • Security key enforcement for users

See Get started with the security health page to learn more.

Congratulations! You now know how to access the Security center to view and understand your dashboard and health recommendations.

See Security dashboard to learn more.

Configure Common Security Settings

Introduction to Exercise

As an admin, there are some basic security settings you can enable and adjust in the Admin console to improve the overall security of your Cloud Identity instance.

Exercise Scenario

In this exercise, you’ll modify and enable security features and settings for your entire domain.

Exercise Directions

1. Sign into your Google Admin console as the administrator user with your administrator account name and password.

2. From the Admin console dashboard, click on the Security icon.

3. Click on Basic settings to ensure security features and settings are enabled in the following sections:

4. By default, only a domain administrator can reset a user’s password. The Password Recovery setting is applicable where you want to allow users to recover their own passwords. This achieved through the use of a recovery email address or phone number. To enable user password recovery, click the Enable/disable non-admin user password recovery link, and check Enable non-admin user password recovery.

Note:

5. In the 2-Step Verification section, check Allow users to turn on 2-step verification.

Note:

6. In Less secure apps, you can control access to third-party apps that use less secure sign-in technology. You can choose to deny access for these apps, which we recommend, or choose to allow access despite the risks.

Note:

7. Expand the Password management section. This is where password policies are set.

You can enforce strong passwords by checking the Enforce strong password box. You can also set a Password length policy by setting minimum and maximum length values. It is recommended to keep the minimum password length to at least 8 characters. You can enforce the length and strength policies when your users next login to their account or when they next change their password. The default enforcement is when the password is next changed.

The Allow password reuse box allows you to control whether your users can reuse their old passwords. We recommend you leave this option unchecked to prevent reuse.

You can also force your users to change their passwords after a certain number of days or allow them to never expire with the Password expiration setting. We recommend you allow passwords to never expire.

Note:

8. In API reference, check Enable API access to enable programmatic access to your Cloud Identity domain.

Note:

9. In Set up single sign-on (SSO), you can enable your users access to many applications without having to enter their username and password for each application.

Congratulations! You can now view and modify basic security settings for your entire domain.