Google Apps admins can now reset sign-in cookies remotely

Google Apps administrators can now remotely deactivate browser cookies that contain their end-users' sign-in credentials, a move designed to improve security in Google's hosted applications suite.

Google Apps users can sign into their accounts from any device with a Web browser, so allowing administrators to reset cookies from the Google Apps control panel adds to the suite's security safeguards, Google said Monday.

The capability will come in handy for administrators if an end-user's PC or mobile device gets lost or stolen, wrote Will Smit, a Google Apps software engineer, in an official blog post.

"This will log out that user from all current Web browser sessions and require new authentication the next time that user tries to access Google Apps," Smit wrote.

Google Apps administrators can already reset end-user passwords.

Losing control of their organization's data is one of the primary issues that concerns IT professionals when considering a move to Web-based applications. It's a concern Google is attempting to address by beefing up the administration features in Google Apps, so that IT staffers have more granular control over security and the enforcement of usage policies.