Passwords serve as the gateway to sensitive systems and data. But weak or compromised credentials represent the single biggest vulnerability that attackers continuously exploit to infiltrate businesses and governments.
Recent statistics paint a sobering picture:
- 80% of breaches involve leveraging stolen or weak passwords according to Verizon‘s annual Data Breach Investigations Report. This trend holds year over year.
- 63% of people admit to reusing the same passwords across multiple sites according to Google research. This exposes accounts if any one site gets breached.
- Each day over 100 million malware attacks target passwords along with 525+ successful enterprise hacks.
Yet rarely do password habits receive enough priority.Employees default to minimum password policies, reuse favorites across accounts, and share credentials openly via email or chat. It‘s a persistent blind spot that threatens companies daily.
That‘s why actively managing password security at scale is mission critical for modern businesses. But doing so manually across systems is impractical without a dedicated solution.
That‘s where 1Password comes in…
What is 1Password?
1Password is an enterprise password management and credential security platform built to secure business passwords, API keys, certificates and sensitive documents.
Trusted by over 100,000 businesses, 1Password makes it easy for employees to generate strong, unique passwords and securely store credentials. Meanwhile, IT admins centrally enforce password policies and control permissions across the business.
1Password empowers both employees and IT teams to collaborate securely:
For employees
- Generate and store strong passwords so you never reuse the same passwords again
- Automatically fill passwords into any browser or app for convenience
- Get alerts from Watchtower if any stored passwords appear in breach data
- Securely share credentials with other team members without unsafe practices like emailing passwords
For IT and Security admins
- Dictate password policies across departments and systems
- Gain visibility into poor password practices at a glance before they cause a breach
- Isolate access permissions to credentials by group, role and system
- Receive alerts on any suspicious credential usage indicating compromise
- Revoke access instantly for off-boarded employees
This balances robust security controls with an intuitive user experience for both employee users and backend IT oversight.
Let‘s explore why password management issues persist, how 1Password uniquely overcomes those insecurities, and what benefits it can offer modern digital businesses.
Why Passwords Remain a Persistent Security Risk
Passwords theoretically provide the first line of defense restricting access to sensitive systems and data.
But multiple risky password practices negate that security, including:
Employees default to weak, guessable passwords
The average person chooses convenient passwords that are easy to remember but also easy for attackers to guess or brute force crack.
In fact, 6 of the top 25 most common passwords are simply number sequences like "123456" according to Google research. Chances are some of your employees fit this category.
Password reuse remains rampant
A staggering 63% of people admit reusing passwords across multiple accounts. So a single breach leaves all of those accounts vulnerable even if the other services have strong security.
This means one low security website getting hacked can put your company data at risk if employees use the same credential.
Billions of stolen passwords get leaked yearly
Major password dumps from breaches on sites like LinkedIn, MySpace and Rotate constantly flood the dark web and hacking forums.
Just in the first half of 2022, over 8 billion passwords were leaked in batches like the "RockYou2021" list containing close to 100 million exposed emails and passwords.
These fuel credential stuffing lists that attackers use to takeover other accounts.
Visibility into poor password hygiene lacks
Without a centralized view, IT and security teams have no systematic way to know if employee password habits are creating vulnerabilities…until after a breach happens.
Disjointed spreadsheets, post-it notes or basic managers significantly erode accountability, best practice enforcement and ultimately security.
How 1Password Solves These Password Security Pitfalls
1Password overcomes all of the most common poor password practices through a centralized platform providing control, automation and insights.
Automatically generate and store strong, random passwords
The cornerstone feature of 1Password is its ability to generate complex 20+ character passwords using true randomness for every unique site and system.
Required password complexity like symbols, mixed case and number injection further strengthens combinations to effectively eliminate brute forcing.
By storing these auto-generated passwords securely encrypted in 1Password vaults, employees no longer need to try memorizing them. The burden shifts from human to machine.
This renders password reuse obsolete since every account utilizes independent credentials from the start.
Receive automated warnings on vulnerable passwords
1Password‘s Watchtower integration with haveibeenpwned‘s breach database flags any stored passwords appearing in leaks to prompt resets before account takeovers.
By uniquely checking credentials against billions of real world compromised passwords, risks get discovered automatically instead of repeating past mistakes.
Detailed password strength reports also reveal weak spots like low character length or pure lowercase passwords across employees so IT can enforce improvements with policies.
Collaborating with other teams often requires sharing access to credentials. But directly emailing passwords violates security best practices.
1Password enables IT to isolate permission groups where only designated teams can view or edit certain credential vaults based on their role. Logs provide oversight.
Secret Key and read-only link features also help teams securely coordinate passwords, API keys or sensitive documents. Permission options give fined-grained control.
No more loose passwords floating around different inboxes.
Centrally govern employee password behavior
The 1Password admin console acts as a central dashboard to configure password rules and permissions according to business infrastructure needs.
Set universal policies requiring minimum 12 character randomized passwords, force periodic resets and dictate special character usage. Gain visibility into vulnerabilities across employees fueling insecure habits.
Through a combination of enterprise policy enforcement and routine automated security checks, IT can systematically mature password practices at scale rather than relying on employees alone.
This covers the core ways 1Password closes vulnerable gaps that standard password practices open. But enhancing protection is only half of 1Password‘s value…
Key Business Benefits of 1Password
While blocking threats is table stakes, 1Password balances security with significant convenience and workflow benefits tailored to enterprise requirements like:
Powerful access and permission controls
Advanced admin console controls in 1Password give IT granular power to dictate password policies and permission levels tailored to the organization‘s infrastructure and risk tolerance.
With flexible groups and permissions, specific teams or roles can securely access only the vaults they need for their job without unnecessary exposure to other systems.
Vault permissions can be independently managed at a Group, User or Vault level. For example, the Development team‘s AWS vault stays isolated from Sales while Finance handles their own accounting credentials. HR manages employee records securely without overexposure.
Activity Audit logs provide oversight into user actions for audits. Alerts notify on suspicious credential access attempts and unwanted changes.
Privileged access features also enable permissions isolation so only designated admin users can manage and configure 1Password itself.
Automated password security scanning
1Password‘s Watchtower technology scans all stored passwords to identify weak, reused or compromised credentials that put business accounts at risk.
By automatically checking passwords against haveibeenpwned‘s breach database, exposed passwords are flagged for employees to reset. This prevents account takeovers before they happen.
Password strength reports also reveal common weak spots like too-short character length or all lower case passwords across the organization. Employees can be prompted or forced to improve them based on policy.
With real-time insight into poor password hygiene issues at scale, IT can enforce secure practices and respond early before incidents happen.
Secure password sharing for teams
Securely sharing passwords or other secrets between team members is made seamless with 1Password.
For sites or vault items that should only be accessed by certain users, encrypted vault permissions facilitate targeted password access on a need-to-know basis. Audit logs provide IT oversight.
This eliminates risky practices like emailing passwords in plaintext across internal teams. No more credential sprawl as new hires onboard or folks change roles.
From developer API keys to executive financial logins, permissions stay logically organized according to roles.
Further securing the transport channel itself, Secret Key sharing uses a role-based 34 character secret string for unlocking vault items. This assigns "encryption keys" to recipients tied to their email address.
Together vault permissions, Secret Key distribution and AD/Azure AD connectivity enable precise password access control.
Streamline DevOps secrets management
Hardcoding secrets like API keys, certificates and database passwords into application code or scripts creates huge security risks long term. It‘s also a operational headache to update constantly.
1Password‘s Secrets Automation capability allows securely injecting tokens, keys and credentials into tools like Terraform, Docker, Kubernetes and more on demand instead.
This automates workflows without ever exposing secrets in source code or console output. No more plaintext sensitive variables lingering in GitHub history or CI logs.
Role assignment also keeps secrets logically separated and accessible only to specific teams.
By centrally governing sensitive infrastructure variables with permissions, DevOps engineers gain both security and convenience advantages. Infrastructure-as-code becomes safer instantly.
Evaluating 1Password‘s Security Capabilities
With exponential account growth exposing more business data each year, selecting a password manager with robust security built in is non-negotiable.
1Password checks the boxes on encryption standards, protocols, access controls and compliance like:
AES-256 bit encryption – Data encrypted both at rest and in transit using the industry gold standard.
Vault isolation – Information siloed using authenticated encryption so no single compromised vault exposes other data.
Salted password hashing – PBKDF2 with per-user salts protects even against pre-computed rainbow table password attacks.
Support for managed devices
Integration with mobile device management (MDM) and endpoint managers like Jamf provides heightened security enforcing PIN unlock + device wipe policies for lost mobile devices. This ensures 1Password auth secrets stay protected if a device gets lost or stolen.
SOC 2 compliance
Assessment of security, confidentiality and availability controls required for financial, healthcare and other regulated industries.
Role based access control (RBAC)
Isoate permissions to only allow the necessary credential access based on job functions. Logs provide auditing.
Zero-knowledge architecture
1Password employees have no ability to view or access customer master passwords or vault data at any time due to cryptographic controls.
Together these make 1Password highly certified and recommended for enforcing password security across industries like Healthcare, Financial Services, Government and more.
For deeper technical details, see 1Password‘s security overview.
Comparing 1Password to Alternatives
The majority of well-known password tools like Lastpass or Dashlane cater more towards convenience and singular consumer use rather than robust business protections.
1Password balances strong security with smoothed enterprise workflows across teams. Let‘s compare the key advantages in focus areas:
Powerful admin controls
Enterprise admin console gives IT oversight over password policies and permissions that consumer tools lack. This enables governing password security at scale.
AD/SCIM integration
Smoothly provision or deprovision employee accounts in line with Microsoft or Google directories. Consumer tools don‘t integrate with employee lifecycle workflows.
Watchtower security monitoring
Unique automated checks using haveibeenpwned breach data to proactively secure exposed passwords before attacks. Leading feature for preventing unauthorized account access.
Secrets Automation
Securely inject keys and tokens into DevOps applications and infrastructure workflows without insecure coding practices. Reduces headaches managing credentials.
Travel Mode
Temporarily hides vaults when crossing borders until later reactivation. Crucial for executives that undergo frequent device searches by border control.
While still focused on individual user convenience, 1Password expands well beyond consumer password managers with extra security insights, controls and automation capabilities purpose built for complex business needs.
Simple Setup and Use
1Password balances robust encryption and security policy management with intuitive interfaces across devices. This leads to high user adoption in practice.
Let‘s walk through basics for getting started:
Step 1: Create Your Account
Visit 1Password.com to create your base account using your work email. Install browser extensions if desired.
Step 2: Setup Admin Console
Designate 1-2 IT admins and security team members to configure password policies, permissions groups (HR, Sales, DevOps), shared vaults andomain directory integrations as needed.
Step 3: Install Employee Client Apps
Have employees download 1Password apps onto devices through the app store. Mac, Windows, iOS and Android are all supported.
That‘s the simple basics of deployment. For larger enterprise rollouts, 1Password administration also supports automated domain-driven user provisioning and deprovisioning workflows through SCIM or Azure AD integrations.
Guiding employees to seamlessly enroll personal devices into managed policies can also allow companies to support "Bring Your Own Device" flexibility while still governing app configurations centrally.
On the employee user side, intuitive features like biometric face unlock, password autofill, password generation and Watchtower security alerts make handling multiple complex passwords easy across all major platforms and browsers.
Whether in the office or in the field, use 1Password to securely access business systems with improved login speeds, less friction and centralized IT oversight.
Customer Case Study Results on 1Password
With password security issues plaguing companies worldwide, positive customer reception and several case studies highlight 1Password‘s impact securing sensitive systems:
"1Password has solved password problems I didn‘t even know I had. Employee credential usage became measurable for the first time."*
"Within a year we closed 72% of previously reported vulnerabilities thanks to automated password security policies across 300+ employees."*
"We love how granular and flexible the permissions and groups component makes collaborating between IT, Developers and Finance teams. Password security improved company-wide very quickly."
"Migrating our credentials from their previous ‘hidden under a drawer‘ location into 1Password provided immense relief. It‘s become one of our most trusted and relied upon apps."*
Across healthcare, technology, financial and insurance sectors, customers praise enhanced password control, security policy automation and ease of decentralizing secrets management from a single risky spreadsheet file as major security wins.
With incredible 98% customer satisfaction based on GetApp reviews, 1Password delivers measurable password risk reduction quickly with minimal disruption to existing workflows.
Is 1Password Right For My Business?
At the end of the day, any modern enterprise with more than a handful of employees should centralize password management as much as other security solutions like firewalls or endpoint protection. Leaving credentials scattered across Post-It notes or basic consumer password managers poses serious risk.
With remote work and BYOD policies expanding business attack surfaces constantly, inadequate visibility and controls over password hygiene poses one of the biggest threats according to enterprise security teams.
1Password solves these problems by making enterprise password security easy, scalable and failsafe so companies both large and small can:
- Instill consistent password habits across employees to reduce human error risks
- Gain visibility into poor password practices before they turn into data breaches
- Securely collaborate credentials between teams without dangerous practices like emailing passwords ad hoc
- Automate policy enforcement and adoption of password manager best practices
- Receive alerts on suspicious activity indicative of a credentials compromise
Proven across over 100,000 businesses and with 30 days free to trial, every modern digital enterprise should evaluate how 1Password can systematize password risks as a foundational security layer.
The days of disjointed sticky notes and spreadsheets to "manage" critical business credentials are over. Follow industry leaders securing systems with 1Password.
