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Apple To Deploy 1Password To All 123,000 Employees; In Talks To Acquire Password Manager's Parent-Firm AgileBits: Report (bgr.com)

Posted by msmash on from the up-next dept.

Jonathan S. Geller, reporting for BGR: Apple acquires an average of 15 to 20 companies a year, according to CEO Tim Cook. Of that number, we only hear about a couple, as most of these acquisitions or aqcui-hires are not consumer-facing, nor disclosed. However, we have exclusively learned that Apple is planning an interesting partnership and a potential acquisition of AgileBits, maker of the popular password manager 1Password.

According to our source, after many months of planning, Apple plans to deploy 1Password internally to all 123,000 employees. This includes not just employees in Cupertino, but extends all the way to retail, too. Furthermore, the company is said to have carved out a deal that includes family plans, giving up to 5 family members of each employee a free license for 1Password. With more and more emphasis on security in general, and especially at Apple, there are a number of reasons this deal makes sense. We're told that 100 Apple employees will start using 1Password through this initiative starting this week, with the full 123,000+ users expected to be activated within the next one to two months. Update: In a statement, 1Password said rumors of its acquisition were "completely false."

3 of 104 comments (clear)

  1. Why? by Snotnose · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Why would anyone store their passwords in the cloud? Color me stupid, paranoid, whatever, I don't get it.

    Keepass for the win,

    1. Re:Why? by Kohath · · Score: 5, Insightful

      So they automatically sync to my phone and iPad. Why would anyone manually sync passwords when you can get the same thing to happen automatically?

      A password that is too sensitive for cloud sync is too sensitive for any password manager.

    2. Re:Why? by XXeR · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The point is not having secure passwords, the point is having different passwords for your services.

      Agreed.

      Your password security is only as secure as where you are using them.

      I disagree. If I use Keepass and store my DB locally, then I'd argue that's more secure than anything stored in the cloud. At the very least, it's up to me to ensure it's secure, rather than hoping someone else is doing so for me.

      With cloud stored passwords, you can have auto generated arbitrary passwords, each different for each service so in case of a leak, your other services aren't compromised.

      This doesn't require cloud storage of passwords.

      Just make sure the password vault is encrypted client side and it should be reasonable secure for "random online stuff".

      Or, store it COMPLETELY client side...and encrypt it.

      For banking or high secure requirements, then no. Something involving keys would probably be better.

      So you propose using a cloud storage service for passwords, unless you're banking?