Changes to minimum password length for Google Apps accounts
March 1, 2011
As part of our continuous efforts to help our users protect their information, we recently launched 2-step verification for all Google accounts. Starting March 14, we will also increase the minimum password length requirement for Google Apps accounts from 6 characters to 8.
This new policy aligns Google Apps accounts with consumer accounts that already require passwords to be at least 8 characters long.
Existing users can keep their current password even if it doesn’t match the new security requirements, but they will be required to comply when changing their password for the first time. Administrators will also need to comply when resetting passwords for users.
With this change, passwords set via the Google Apps Control Panel from March 14 will need to be at least 8 characters long. Calls to the Provisioning API that try to set a user's password that is shorter than 8 characters will also fail with an InvalidPassword error message. For more information on how to programmatically manage user accounts, please check the Provisioning API Developer’s Guide.
This new policy aligns Google Apps accounts with consumer accounts that already require passwords to be at least 8 characters long.
Existing users can keep their current password even if it doesn’t match the new security requirements, but they will be required to comply when changing their password for the first time. Administrators will also need to comply when resetting passwords for users.
With this change, passwords set via the Google Apps Control Panel from March 14 will need to be at least 8 characters long. Calls to the Provisioning API that try to set a user's password that is shorter than 8 characters will also fail with an InvalidPassword error message. For more information on how to programmatically manage user accounts, please check the Provisioning API Developer’s Guide.
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