How do I use 1Password to access work required passwords while keeping others secure?

zemble1

I have a situation where my work gives me a nice MacBook, but admin have total access and we're not allowed any software that's not standard at purchase (other than Chrome and a tiny handful of other packages). I buy Dropbox, Adobe, and quite a few other things to make my life easier and to work better.

So I use my personal laptop for work because I can't work out any way to use the many services I pay for myself without compromising my passwords.

Am I missing something? Is there a way to set things up so that I can access services through the browser using my personal subscription to 1Password?

Would it be as simple as having two vaults and then deciding which passwords I care about and which I care about less?

(My work seems to think that, as the computer is heavily locked down and monitored, passwords and password managers aren't required -- so we all use the same passwords or basic work access and never change them!)

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1Password Version: 8.10.50
Extension Version: 8.10.50.25
OS Version: 15.1
Browser: Brave (Chrome)

GreyM1P

Hi there @zemble1

I'll elaborate in a moment, but up front I'll say the short answer is: "you should speak to your IT department".

Even though you can sign in to 1Password.com without installing any additional software, the main thing here will be to check that you're using 1Password in line with your company's policy. 1Password is end-to-end encrypted and can't be accessed by anyone without your Secret Key and account password, so security likely isn't the concern, but your company may have policies regarding password managers in general and may forbid their use.

The same could well be true for Adobe and Dropbox, especially if any work-related files are stored there, as this might violate your company's confidentiality policy, for example. This is especially true because these services are not end-to-end encrypted, to the best of my knowledge, unlike 1Password.

Although it's possible to think up technical solutions to a wide variety of problems, they also need to be ones that won't get you in trouble at work.

You also mentioned:

admin have total access

I would strongly exercise caution in this case. If it's possible for an admin to "shoulder-surf" your 1Password items (or even just to see that you're using it when you shouldn't be), then you probably shouldn't trust that computer and should treat it as a hostile environment. You should not install or use 1Password on a system that you don't trust for any reason.

If your IT department would like to contact us about trying 1Password company-wide, or if they have technical questions about it, they're very welcome to contact us at support@1password.com and we can help them with that. If you have any questions yourself, you can ask them here or email us directly and we can answer them. :)

— Grey

zemble1

Thanks. That's a very helpful answer, and it pretty much confirms what I suspected.

What I didn't consider was that some companies may actually forbid the use of password managers. I will ask about this. I assumed (based on conversations with my HoD) that it was a budgetary and IT workload issue, but I will investigate whether there is more to it.

(I suspect I will be told to use the Apple Passowords app given that it's a new machine.)

GreyM1P

@zemble1 – You're very welcome! We'll be here if you need anything.