A Pragmatic Guide to Google Account Takeover Protection

What is Google Workspace account takeover protection?

Google Workspace account takeover (ATO) protection refers to a set of security measures – both native and enhanced via third-party tools – designed to prevent unauthorized access to a user’s account, especially by attackers attempting to hijack accounts for malicious purposes.

ATO protection involves proactive detection, prevention, and response mechanisms that safeguard Google Workspace user accounts from being accessed or controlled by unauthorized entities.

Why do I need account takeover protection for Google Workspace?

Companies need Google account takeover protection to defend against a range of increasingly sophisticated cyber threats that target user identities and sensitive data. Even if your organization already uses Google Workspace’s built-in security features, layering additional protection is essential due to the evolving threat landscape and the high stakes involved in email and identity compromise.

Here’s a detailed breakdown of why Google account takeover protection is critical:

Email is the gateway to everything

Google Workspace accounts often serve as the single sign-on (SSO) or access point to:

• Gmail (email communications)
• Google Drive (documents, spreadsheets)
• Calendar (meeting schedules)
• Google Meet (video conferencing)
• And many third-party apps via OAuth

If an attacker compromises just one account, they can:

• Access confidential business data
• Impersonate executives to initiate various forms of fraud (business email compromise)
• Download sensitive documents
• Pivot laterally across systems or escalate privileges

Account takeovers Are common and costly

According to industry reports:

• 90% of data breaches involve compromised credentials.
• Email account takeover is a top initial vector for ransomware, phishing, and data exfiltration.
• Business Email Compromise (BEC) scams cost companies billions annually.

Even one compromised Google account can lead to:

• Reputational damage
• Regulatory or compliance violations (e.g. GDPR, HIPAA)
• Operational disruption

Users make mistakes, attackers don’t have to

All it takes is one moment where an employee is distracted, tired, or simply not paying attention. No matter how well-trained your workforce is:

• Users click on phishing links.
• Password reuse or weak passwords are common.
• OAuth permissions may be granted to malicious apps.
• Employees use unmanaged personal devices.

ATO protection mitigates the damage after an attacker gains access, which is vital because perimeter defenses like spam filters and MFA aren't foolproof.

Regulatory, legal, and compliance requirements

Depending on your industry, you may be required to demonstrate:

• Controls around unauthorized access
• Data protection mechanisms (e.g. for financial, healthcare, or customer data)
• Incident response capabilities

Google account takeover protection helps satisfy audit and compliance requirements and reduces liability risk.

Does Google have native features for account takeover protection?

Yes, Google Workspace includes several built-in security capabilities aimed at preventing account takeovers:

2-Step verification (2SV / MFA)

• Adds an extra layer of identity verification
• Admins can enforce this across the org
  
  

Login challenges and context-aware access

• Google evaluates login context (e.g., location, device, IP reputation)
• Risky logins may trigger additional verification or be blocked entirely
  
  

Alert center and admin console notifications:

• Security alerts for suspicious sign-ins or phishing attempts
  
  

Security health page:

• Provides recommendations for securing accounts, such as reviewing admin roles and enforcing MFA
  
  

OAuth app access control:

• Restricts which third-party apps can access Workspace data

What are the limitations of Google’s account takeover protection features?

Google Workspace provides solid baseline protection against account takeovers through its native security features. However, these built-in tools have limitations that security professionals should be aware of, especially when it comes to real-time threat response, content-level protection, and visibility – which are essential for companies handling sensitive data or facing advanced threats.

Here’s a breakdown of the key limitations of Google’s native account takeover protection (ATO) features:

No post-access protection

Once a user is authenticated, Google does not restrict access to content—whether legitimate or malicious:

• An attacker with valid credentials and a successful login has full access to Gmail, Drive, Calendar, and more.
• There’s no retroactive protection of sensitive content (e.g., previously received emails or documents).
• Content-level access controls like redaction, MFA gating, or quarantine don’t exist.

Limited contextual access controls

While Google supports some context-aware access policies, they are:

• Limited in granularity (e.g., hard to tailor per user or sensitivity of content)
• Challenging to configure at scale

No step-up authentication for sensitive actions

Google does not natively require step-up authentication (e.g., re-verifying with MFA) when:

• Viewing or downloading sensitive emails
• Accessing a high-risk third-party app
• Connecting from a high-risk device or IP address

This means attackers who bypass MFA once (e.g., via phishing or session hijack) can roam freely.

No automated remediation

If a user account is compromised:

• Google alerts admins, but does not automate remediation (e.g., quarantining content, restricting email access, locking sessions).
• Admins must manually investigate, isolate, and respond – a process that delays containment.

Lack of content sensitivity awareness

Google does not apply sensitivity-based controls to:

• Specific types of email (e.g., finance, HR, legal)
• Confidential Drive files
• Role-based access (e.g., C-level vs. intern)

Every authenticated user gets equal access to all their data, regardless of sensitivity or role risk.

How can I prevent a Google account takeover?

Preventing a Google account takeover requires a layered, proactive approach that combines Google Workspace’s native protections with enhanced security practices and tools. Since attackers often exploit both human and technical vulnerabilities, the most effective prevention strategy integrates identity protection, device posture, content safeguards, and user education.

Here’s a comprehensive guide on how to prevent a Google account takeover:

Enforce strong authentication

• Use 2-Step Verification (2SV) or Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)
• Enforce MFA for Admins and High-Privilege Users

Implement context-aware access controls

• Use Google Workspace’s Context-Aware Access (CAA)
• Define high-risk scenarios. For example, block email access from unknown countries and restrict file downloads from unmanaged mobile devices

Secure email and OAuth access

• Monitor and restrict third-party OAuth apps
• Enable advanced phishing and malware protection

Monitor account activity and risk signals

• Use the Security Center and Admin Alerts
• Investigate with the Security Investigation Tool

Educate users on social engineering risks

• Run phishing awareness training (bonus points if you can defang a real phishing attempt and test users with an attack seen in the wild).
• Promote strong credential hygiene (e.g. don’t reuse passwords, promote use of a password manager)

Establish an incident response plan

Predefine steps to take if an account is compromised

• Lock the account
• Revoke sessions and tokens
• Review recent activity
• Notify affected parties and update credentials

Layer on third-party ATO protections 

Google's native tools are solid, but third-party tools provide stronger protections, especially after login. For example, Material Security offers:

• Post-login email protection: Require MFA to access sensitive messages, even after account login.
• Contextual access controls: Block or redact emails and documents based on device, network, or user risk.
• Attack forensics and retroactive protection: Respond even if the account was already compromised.

How does Material Security protect against Google account takeovers?

Material Security integrates directly with Google Workspace via API, providing a depth and breadth of features to both protect against potential account takeovers and dramatically reduce the blast radius of a compromised account. In addition to strengthening phishing protection using a detection engine that includes AI, ML and threat research, Material protects data stored in Gmail by requiring additional authentication to access sensitive information.

Because compromising a Google account gives access to all of Google Workspace, Material takes a holistic approach to security that extends beyond the inbox. Material secures Google Workspace by protecting data and preventing misconfigurations in Gmail, shared Drives, MyDrives and accounts.

Why do companies choose Material for Google account takeover protection?

Companies use Material for Google account takeover protection because it offers a set of features that provide protection before, during, and after a breach.

Best-in-class phishing detection

Material will block a majority of malicious emails that are the gateway to an account takeover (ATO). Material’s phishing detection engine works with a combination of AI, ML, threat intelligence, user reports, Google alerts, and custom detections. This powerful combination categorizes messages to:

• Identify malicious signals
• Filter out false positives and known trustworthy senders
• Group detected messages into distinct attack campaigns

The result is an always-on, automated detection and response platform that helps even lean teams scale their efforts and provide round-the-clock Gmail protection.

Post-breach protection

Material’s Gmail security doesn’t stop at inbound threats–it protects data stored within inboxes. Emails are automatically classified as sensitive and after a pre-determined period, content is redacted and users must pass an out-of-band MFA authentication to access the sensitive data. Login attempts are saved in an audit log so security teams can see both successful and unsuccessful attempts to unlock emails. This dramatically reduces the potential impact of an ATO while allowing users to store important information in their inboxes.

Automatic remediation workflows

Material will detect misconfigurations and risky settings across Google Workspace, and take the steps needed to fix them. Once a risk is identified, a single click is all it takes to toggle on a remediation workflow. Material gives security teams the flexibility to opt for standard workflows or customize the remediation to match their organization’s risk profile. Employees receive notifications when an alert is enough to trigger a behavior change, or settings can be automatically fixed behind-the-scenes. When no automation is available due to limitations in Google’s APIs, Material provides step-by-step instructions on how to fix settings.

Holistic coverage

Material combines Google account security with Google Drive DLP coverage and comprehensive Gmail security that works before, during, and after a breach. Within the same platform, security teams can understand risk across Gmail, Drive, and account settings – no toggling between applications or areas of the security console required.

Proactive protection

Material identifies risk across Google Workspace and ties together anomalous activity to provide a clear picture of the risk associated with specific accounts. By triangulating signals across email, documents and accounts, the platform can highlight serious risks that emerge when multiple less-urgent risk factors combine.

Works with any tier of Google Workspace

Because Material connects directly to Google Workspace via APIs, it doesn’t require a higher tier of Workspace to use all the features. This gives companies the option to enhance their Google Workspace security without locking into a higher tier of Workspace subscription.

How are companies using Material’s Google account takeover protection?

Companies that want to strengthen their approach to Google Workspace security are seeing real results from working with Material. Here are just a few examples of how customers use Material for Google account takeover protection:

• Databricks extends MFA to protect sensitive data in mailboxes, rolling out the feature with zero user complaints.
• Alto implemented a plug-and-play solution to extend MFA protection and secure Google accounts.
• Gusto secures sensitive data without slowing down employee workflows.

Try Material Security today

Contact us to learn more and see how Material can protect your data from account takeovers.