Is Your Google Workspace as Secure as You Think it is?

The New Reality for Lean Security Teams

If you’re the first security or IT hire at a fast-growing startup, you’ve probably inherited a mandate that’s both simple and complex: secure the business without slowing it down.

Most organizations using Google Workspace start with an environment built for collaboration, not flexibility. Shared drives, flexible settings, and continuous integration make life easier for employees – and equally easier for attackers.

The good news is that Google Workspace offers an excellent security foundation. The challenge is in configuring it properly, maintaining visibility, and closing blind spots left open by Google’s native controls.

This article outlines key practices every security team—especially small, lean teams—should follow to strengthen Google Workspace and defend against modern cloud threats.

1. Lock the basics

Implement multi-factor authentication (MFA)

MFA is the most effective way to prevent account compromise. In Googlee Admin Console, go to:

Security → Authentication → 2-Step Verification

• set policy to “On for all”,
• Requires security key (FIDO2) or Google’s gesture-based MFA instead of SMS code.
• Enforce context-aware access for administrators and executives—only allow logins from trusted networks or devices.

Even after accurately detecting phishing, credential theft is inevitable. MFA makes them useless.

harden administrator access

Administrator accounts are a prime target. In Admin Console → Directory → Roles,

• Keep the number of super admins as low as possible.
• Specify role-based access—for example, group administrator, help desk administratorOr user management administrator– Instead of blanket privileges.
• Turn on administrator email alerts for privilege escalation or new role assignments.

This ensures that a compromised administrator account does not mean complete compromise.

secure sharing default

Google’s collaboration tools are powerful—but their default sharing settings can be dangerous.

under Apps → Google Workspace → Drive & Docs → Sharing settings,

• Set to “Link Sharing” forbidden (By default internal only).
• Prevent users from making files public unless explicitly approved.
• Disable “anyone with the link” access to sensitive shared drives.

Drive leaks rarely happen out of malice – they happen through convenience. Tight defaults prevent accidental risk.

Control OAuth app access

under Security → Access and Data Control → API Control,

• Review all third-party apps associated with Workspace below app access control,
• Block any app that makes requests “Full access to Gmail”, “Read/Write Drive”Or “Directory Access” Without any clear business case.
• Whitelist only trusted, vetted vendors.

Compromised or poorly coded apps can become secret backdoors to your data.

2. Be strong against email threats

Email remains the most targeted and exploited part of any organization’s cloud environment.

Although Google’s built-in phishing protection prevents much, it can’t always stop socially engineered or internally generated attacks – especially those taking advantage of compromised accounts.

To improve flexibility:

• Turn on advanced phishing and malware protection:
  • In Admin Console → Apps → Google Workspace → Gmail → SecurityEnable Settings for “Protect against inbound phishing, malware, spam, and domain impersonation” And “Detect unusual attachment types”,
  • Able “Protect from inconsistent attachment behavior” To drive links embedded in emails.
• Enable DMARC, DKIM and SPF,

  These three email authentication mechanisms ensure that attackers cannot impersonate your domain. install them below Apps → Google Workspace → Settings for Gmail → Authenticate email,

• Train your users—but support it with automation,

  Phishing awareness helps, but human error is inevitable. Layer detection and response tools that can identify suspicious internal messages, lateral phishing attempts, or malicious attachments that bypass Google’s filters.

Nowadays threats received through email increase rapidly. Speed ​​of response—not just detection—is important.

3. Detect and control account takeovers

A compromised Google account can quickly lead to a cascade. Attackers can access shared drives, steal OAuth tokens, and silently exfiltrate data.

active surveillance

In Security Dashboard → Testing ToolsMonitor for:

• Sudden login attempt from new geolocation.
• Abnormal download volume from the drive.
• Automatic forwarding rules that send mail externally.

automatic alerts

Set up automatic alerts for:

• Password reset without MFA challenge.
• Questionable OAuth grant.
• Failed login burst or credential stuffing activity.

Google’s alerts are helpful but limited. They don’t correlate multiple accounts or detect subtle, slow-moving compromises.

4. Understand and protect your data

It is impossible to secure what you do not understand. Most organizations have years of unclassified, sensitive data hidden in Drive and Gmail – financial models, customer data, source code, HR files.

Data Discovery and DLP

Although Google offers Data Loss Prevention (DLP), it is harsh and often noisy.

under Security → Data Securityyou can:

• Create rules to detect patterns like credit card numbers, SSNs, or custom keywords.
• Apply them to Drive, Gmail, and chat.
• But beware of false positives and the administrative overhead of manual triage.

Better access and governance

• Enable drive labels to classify sensitive content.
• Use context-aware access to require MFA or device trust for sensitive data.
• Monitor public link sharing with regular drive audits.

When sensitive files are inevitably highly shared, automation—not manual cleanup—should handle it.

5. Balance collaboration and control

Google Workspace thrives because of its openness—but that openness can create siled performance.

To protect data without reducing productivity:

• Enable Drive Sharing alerts to notify users when sensitive data is shared externally.
• Implement “justification workflows” where users must explain why they are sharing outside the domain.
• Revoke inactive user access and external file links periodically.

Safety shouldn’t mean saying “no.” This should mean enabling secure collaboration by default.

From foundation to fortress: filling in the core gaps

Even after tuning every native control, Google Workspace still has blind spots—Because its tools were designed for collaboration first, and security second.

Interval:

• Limited context: Google looks at events individually—a login anomaly or a shared file—but not the relationships between them.
• Reactive response: Detection exists, but automated treatment is minimal. You will still rely heavily on manual triage.
• Data at Rest Blindness: Sensitive data hidden in Gmail and Drive becomes vulnerable once it is stored, even though it is often the highest-value target.

This is where Material Security transforms Workspace from a secure platform to a truly flexible platform.