Google Cloud requires its users to use multifactor authentication starting in 2025 to improve account security.
As of January 2025, Google will force about 30 percent of Google Cloud customers to enable MFA. This is only a small minority of users who currently only use a password to authenticate themselves and thus have not yet embraced multifactor authentication.
Phased approach
Over the next two months, the tech giant will be sending reminders about the upcoming MFA requirement. Starting in January, MFA will become mandatory for users logging in with a password, and by the end of 2025 for all federated users. “At Google Cloud, we strive to give our customers the very best security,” Google revealed in its blog.
Google introduced MFA for consumers back in 2011. The option is not mandatory for consumer accounts, but it is widely used. Because Google Cloud users host more delicate data, Google decided to make MFA a requirement there.
Google is one of the last companies yet to mandate MFA, previously AWS, Microsoft (with Azure), and Snowflake passed this measure.