Google's new security program is designed to thwart even the most persistent hackers from accessing your account. The catch? The Advanced Protection Program, announced on Tuesday, is only for "high-risk" users.
That includes campaign staffers working for an election, journalists uncovering a sensitive story, business leaders, and people in abusive relationships looking for safety.
"We took this unusual step because there is an overlooked minority of our users that are at particularly high risk of targeted online attacks," the company said in a blog post.
Anyone with a personal Google account can enroll into the Advanced Protection program, but it requires trading in some convenience for the extra security.
For instance, the new program requires users to also sign in with a physical security key. These keys, which are USB or Bluetooth devices that can cost around $20, generate encrypted codes that can be sent to Google to unlock account access.
The security measure is designed to address phishing attacks that try to trick users into giving up their passwords. Hackers will do this by sending spoofed emails or fake online forms that look like they've come from a legitimate company, or even from Google itself. That's what happened last year when Hillary Clinton's campaign chair was duped into giving up access to his Gmail account to suspected Russian hackers.
Google's new Advanced Protection program would have prevented this hack entirely, though traditional two-factor authentication would also have come in handy there. Either way, no security key means no access, even if the hacker knows your password.
The new Google program also forces users to say goodbye to third-party apps or extensions that rely on access to Gmail or Google Drive data. This was done to prevent users from accidentally sharing the access to third-party apps that look legitimate, but are really malicious.
One such phishing scheme used this very tactic in May with a fake Google Docs app that fooled users into handing over Gmail access to the dummy product.
All this extra security comes with another important caveat. If you ever lose your security keys, account recovery won't be as easy.
Google has designed the program to be on guard against hackers trying to impersonate the user and pretending to be locked out from the account. As a result, users will have go through several "extra steps" to prove their identity with Google in the event they ever lose account access.
To sign up, you must purchase two security keys, one with Bluetooth functionality, the other with USB access. Google's sign-up page even recommends which keys to buy.