Google beefs up security controls in Drive for Work

Google is adding a bevy of new controls and alerts to improve the security of company data stored and shared via Google Drive for its business and education customers.

Over the next few weeks customers using Google Drive for Work and Google for Education should start to see new features roll out that offer greater control over how files are shared within and outside the company.

Google Drive for Work customers will be getting new sharing settings that they can control by department. This will allow, for example, the research department to lock down sharing of a particular file to its unit. Meanwhile other departments, such as sales and marketing, can share documents freely. The feature refines existing controls that can restrict the sharing of a file outside of an organisation. Both these controls can be accessed in the Google Admin console.

To help manage these more complex sharing rules Google has also developed new custom alerts as part of its audit features.

Another feature that could cut tedious workloads for the IT department — and time lost for the employe — is a new self-service feature that lets employees reset their own password, though IT admins will need authorise this feature.

The custom alerts and password reset function will be available to all Google Apps for Work customers.

Google Drive users will also be able to disable downloading, printing and copying from the advanced sharing menu in order to restrict sharing options for documents that were only intended for a small group.

There’s also a new way to share files with people who don’t have a Google account. That will allow Google Drive users to share PDFs, Google Docs or videos with others outside the organisation without requiring them to sign in to a Google account.

Finally, Google will be rolling out “trusted domains” for schools and work customers that allows users to set multiple domains for sharing from Drive (for business customers) or Classroom (for schools). However, this feature is due out at some point in the next few months.

The security feature update from Google come asMicrosoft rolls out new mobile device management features for Office 365 users to help business customers control the potential loss of information stored in its cloud document tools on Android, iOS and Windows Phone devices.

This article is brought to you by Enex TestLab, content directors for CSO Australia.

Tags password protectionGoogleAndroidiosGoogle AppsGoogle DocssalesGoogle DriveSecurity ControlsCSO AustraliaWindows Phone devicescompany datacustom alertsIT adminsGoogle Education

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