Ahead of the US presidential election, Google is providing password support to the Advanced Protection Program (APP), which is used by people at high risk of targeted attacks, such as campaign workers, candidates, journalists, human rights workers and others.
The APP traditionally required the use of hardware security keys, but soon users can register in the APP with passwords. Users will have the option of using passwords alone or in combination with a password or hardware security key.
“In a critical election year, we will bring this capability to our users who need it most and will continue to work with experts such as Defending Digital Campaigns, the International Foundation for Electoral Systems, the Asia Centre, Internews and Possible to help protect the world’s high-risk users,” Google Vice President of Security Engineering Heather Adkins said in a suspension.
Google says passwords have been used to authenticate users more than a billion times across more than 400 million Google Accounts since the company began supporting passwords in 2022. Google says passwords are used in Accounts Google more often than legacy forms of two-step verification, such as SMS one-time passwords and app-based one-time passwords are combined.
Password logins make it harder for bad actors to remotely access your accounts, as they would also need physical access to a phone. Access keys also remove the need to rely on username and password combinations, which can be susceptible to phishing.
The technology has been adopted by many other companies, including Apple, Amazon, X (formerly Twitter), PayPal, WhatsApp, GitHub and TikTok.
Google also announced that it’s expanding its Cross-Account Protection program, which shares security alerts about suspicious activity with third-party apps you’ve linked to your Google Account. The company says this helps prevent cybercriminals from gaining access to one of your accounts and using it to hack into others. Google notes that it protects 2.4 billion accounts across 3.4 million apps and websites and that it is increasing its partnerships across the industry.
