New technical note shows you how to update security settings for your email applications.

You can use many Opto 22 products to send email notifications to keep engineers and technicians aware of important conditions in your system. For example:

• You can send email through a PAC Control strategy running on a groov EPIC or SNAP PAC controller.
• Your groov View HMI can send event notifications via email.
• Your Node-RED flow on groov RIO or groov EPIC can send email.

But you must make changes now to keep receiving emails!

Prepare to make security changes to your email accounts by May 30, 2022.

For a long time, automation engineers have sent email alerts and reports from automation applications via a ‘throwaway’ Gmail account. This seemed harmless enough at the time and really useful, but it wasn’t very secure. As email abuse has risen over the years, it's time for the “less secure” party to come to an end.

Does this mean an end to all email alerts? Not at all. You just need to adjust your Google Gmail settings and update to a new application password in each application. Of course, this applies (with different end dates) to most other email providers as well as Google; check with your email provider for details. This blog will focus on Google Gmail.