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The 25 Google Ads security checks Black Cat runs

Black Cat SSPM evaluates 25 security policies against your Google Ads configuration on every scan, classifies each finding by risk, and provides remediation steps. Below is the full list, grouped by category.

access control

lowEmail-Only User Access

Review Google Ads users with email-only access and remove or upgrade as appropriate

mediumExcessive Admin Users

Reduce the number of Google Ads admin users to minimize the blast radius of account compromise

lowStale Pending Invitation

Cancel stale pending Google Ads user invitations that have not been accepted

mediumStale User Access

Remove or deactivate Google Ads users who have not accessed the account recently

highAccount With No Admin Users

Assign at least one admin user to each Google Ads account to ensure it can be governed and recovered

lowAccount With Single Admin User

Add a second admin user to eliminate the single point of failure for account governance

lowStale Standard User Access

Review Standard-role users whose access was granted more than 180 days ago and confirm it is still required

mediumStale Admin Invitation

Cancel or re-send admin invitations that have been pending for more than 7 days to reduce the window for account takeover

mediumSelf-Granted User Access

Investigate and revoke self-granted access to enforce separation of duties for Google Ads account access

lowStale Read-Only Invitation

Cancel or re-send read-only invitations that have been pending for more than 14 days

lowStale Email-Only User Access

Review email-only users whose access was granted more than 90 days ago and confirm it is still required

highStale Admin Access

Review admin user access that has not been reviewed in more than 90 days

mediumUser Access Without Inviter

Investigate user access records with no recorded inviter to ensure they were properly authorized

lowStale Standard Access Invitation

Cancel or re-send standard access invitations that have been pending for more than 7 days

availability

highSuspended Account in MCC Hierarchy

Investigate and resolve the account suspension to restore ad delivery and prevent data loss

change management

mediumRecent Sensitive Change

Review recent sensitive changes in Google Ads to ensure they were authorized

highRecent Admin Role Change

Review the recent access role change to confirm it was authorized and did not result in unauthorized privilege escalation

compliance

mediumCancelled Billing Setup

Review cancelled billing setups and clean up stale billing configurations

lowPending Account Budget

Review and approve or reject pending account budgets

data sharing

mediumActive External Data Link

Review and remove unauthorized external data links from the Google Ads account

financial controls

mediumAccount Budget Without End Date

Set an end date on all Google Ads account budgets to prevent uncapped spend

highBudget Without Spending Limit

Set a spending limit on all Google Ads account budgets to cap maximum spend

governance

highBilling Setup Pending

Resolve the pending billing setup to ensure payment authorization is in place before ad spend occurs

mediumCanceled Account in MCC Hierarchy

Remove cancelled accounts from the MCC hierarchy to keep the account structure clean and avoid confusion

highBilling Setup Without Payments Account

Link a valid payments account to the billing setup to ensure all ad spend is properly tracked and billed

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