diff --git a/v2/kafka-to-gcs/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/teleport/v2/templates/KafkaToGcs2.java b/v2/kafka-to-gcs/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/teleport/v2/templates/KafkaToGcs2.java
index 475d2cf2e8..db6c31de26 100644
--- a/v2/kafka-to-gcs/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/teleport/v2/templates/KafkaToGcs2.java
+++ b/v2/kafka-to-gcs/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/teleport/v2/templates/KafkaToGcs2.java
@@ -276,6 +276,7 @@ public static void validateAuthOptions(KafkaToGcsOptions options) {
     // the dataflow pipeline and Kafka broker is on the same network.
     if (options.getUserNameSecretID().isBlank() && options.getPasswordSecretID().isBlank()) {
       useKafkaAuth = false;
+      return;
     }
 
     if ((options.getUserNameSecretID().isBlank() && !options.getPasswordSecretID().isBlank())