Improved Sharing and Publishing Controls for Google Docs

Users of the Premier and Education Editions now have improved controls over access controls and publishing for Google Docs. Administrators can now determine if users are allowed to publish documents, spreadsheets, and presentations to the Internet.

Get the details on how to manage the settings here.

If You Love Your Site, Set it Free

When managing permissions in Google Sites, you can make others owners, collaborators, or viewers. You now have the ability to remove yourself completely from site permissions. As such, you can fully hand over ownership to others.

Get the scoop here.

Administrators Get More Control Over Chat

Two new features let administrators secure and manage Google Talk chat sessions.

• Enable/disable their user's ability to chat outside the domain.
• Enable a setting to automatically accept chat invitations between users in their domain.

These features are only available in Education and Premier Edition (a few more reasons to upgrade).

Google Apps CAN Integrate with Internal Apps

In April, Google announced a secure data connector for Google Apps. With Google Secure Data Connector, employees you specify can interact with authorized data from your on-premise applications within Google Sites, Google Docs and custom App Engine applications, even when employees aren't on your corporate network.

This represents a significant enhancement, available only for Premier and Education Editions.

Learn more ...

All MS Systems Vulnerable to Year-Old Security Hole

Once again, Windows systems (every supported version) is vulnerable to a significant security attack. As reported in ZDNet, Microsoft was alerted to the issue a year ago and has failed to provide a patch.

Time again for IT staff to spend time and energy working around a security problem instead of on projects that help businesses thrive and grow.

Now that I think of it, maybe the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) will petition the FTC to stop Microsoft from selling systems with security holes. Given Microsoft's track record, it sounds like a better case than EPIC's complaint against Google.

Public Service or Extortion?

Earlier this week, the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) petitioned the FTC to force Google to shut down operations of Gmail, Google Docs, and other services (PCMag coverage here). Their justification was the resent security issue with Google Docs that impacted fewer than 0.05% of Google Doc users.

Sounds like EPIC is very concerned about the public's information privacy. UNTIL you read the full petition. In addition to asking the FTC to halt Google's business until government employees determine it is 100% safe, EPIC is asking that Google pay millions of dollars of fines into a fund that may be tapped by EPIC and other privacy groups' operations.

Seems to me that EPIC is attempting a good ole' fashion shakedown.

A Rational View of Google's Recent Minor Security Glitch

David Schrag, author of Stop Buying Servers, offers a rational assessment of Google's recent security glitch ... read it here

Incremental Features Address Security Concerns

In a feature enhancement for Google Apps Premier Edition in January, Google greatly enhanced security with the addition of new administrative features.

Administrators can now:

• Set minimum and maximum password length requirements for their users
• View visual indicators of the strength of their users' passwords

With these features, administrators can now better implement password requirements in line with corporate and regulatory guidelines.