Security advisor: Turn on recommended settings

As an administrator, you can get insights into your organization’s security risks with Security advisor. You can review recommended settings and take action to improve security. You also get a periodic email with security recommendations tailored to your organization.

Note: For phishing emails, you get insights from the previous quarter. To check the time frame of other insights, next to the insight, click Open new .

 Open Security advisor settings

1. Sign in with an administrator account to the Google Admin console.

   If you aren’t using an administrator account, you can’t access the Admin console.

2. Go to Menu  Security > Security advisor.

   Requires having the Security Settings administrator privilege.

3. Review the insights and turn on the recommended settings. 

What are the settings?

You can turn on the following settings in Security advisor to protect your organization’s data:

Phishing and malware protection

	Business Starter	Business Standard	Business Plus	Enterprise Standard	Enterprise Plus
Enhanced Safe Browsing for Chrome browser	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Scan all email attachments in Security Sandbox		✔	✔	✔	✔
Enhanced Safe Browsing for Gmail		✔	✔	✔	✔

Data protection

	Business Starter	Business Standard	Business Plus	Enterprise Standard	Enterprise Plus
Limit external file sharing in Drive	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Prevent users from sharing sensitive data outside your organization			✔	✔	✔
Prevent app access from unsafe mobile devices			✔	✔	✔

Account protection

	Business Starter	Business Standard	Business Plus	Enterprise Standard	Enterprise Plus
Require users to have strong passwords	✔	✔	✔	✔*	✔*
Allow users to sign in using passkeys	✔	✔	✔	✔*	✔*
Turn on 2-Step Verification (2SV)	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔

* This features requires turning off Multi-party approval. Learn more

Upgrade your Google Workspace edition

To turn on some of the recommended settings, you might need to upgrade your Google Workspace edition. To upgrade: 

1. Click Upgrade and follow the instructions. 
2. Refresh the page to see the upgrade.

Changes can take up to 24 hours but typically happen more quickly. Learn more

After you upgrade your edition, sensitive data protection and app access protection are turned on. If you downgrade later, settings that are not available for your new edition are turned off.

Unsubscribe from Security advisor emails

By default, administrators are subscribed to receive Security advisor recommendations by email. You can unsubscribe from the emails by using the Admin console, or by clicking the communication preference link at the bottom of a Security advisor email.

Unsubscribe in the Admin console

1. Sign in with an administrator account to the Google Admin console.

   If you aren’t using an administrator account, you can’t access the Admin console.

2. Go to Menu  Security > Security advisor.

   Requires having the Security Settings administrator privilege.

3. At the bottom, click Email preferences .
4. Select Off to unsubscribe.
5. Click Save.

Unsubscribe in Security advisor email

1. At the bottom of the Security advisor email, click the communication preferences link. This takes you to the Security advisor page in the Admin console, where a dialog box opens with options to manage your preference.
2. Select Off to unsubscribe.
3. Click Save.