1Password reassures users following password change notification scare

Standard password supervisor 1Password induced its customers a scare when it despatched them a message saying their password had been modified, main them to take a position the worst – that they’d been hacked.

Nevertheless, CTO Pedro Canahuati has clarified that the messages have been despatched in error, and got here because of a quick service outage, not a breach of the perfect password supervisor for households.

The scheduled upkeep report (opens in new tab) on the corporate’s web site states that the messages “[appear] to be an unintended aspect impact of the upkeep. Please ignore this message – neither your account password nor your Secret Key has been modified.”

Fearing the worst

Canahuati additional reassured clients that the message, which learn ‘Your Secret Key or password was not too long ago modified. Enter your new account particulars to proceed,’ didn’t imply that “buyer knowledge was not affected in any method.”

1Password was migrating its backend databases, which triggered a surge in sync requests which the servers responded to by rejecting the sign-ins. The person shopper apps then mistakenly interpreted the error code from the servers and despatched out password change alerts to US clients as a substitute.

The visitors to the servers turned secure once more on April 27 within the night, with no extra failed sign-in makes an attempt detected after this level. The subsequent day, no extra error messages have been exhibiting. 

The same incident occurred in December final yr, as customers have been getting the identical password change message. Little is thought about the reason for this problem, however customers have been directed to contact the assist crew and 1Password, and since no extra has been heard on the difficulty, it’s assumed that it was as soon as extra solely a minor error. Far fewer clients have been affected too.

Canahuati mentioned 1Password shall be trying into the reason for this error from final week’s incident to enhance database migration and error dealing with, including that: “we take the integrity of your knowledge and the steadiness of our methods very critically and can proceed to work arduous on daily basis to earn the belief you’ve got positioned in us.”