1Password is a cloud-based, cross-platform password management solution, allowing you to organize and store all your personal and professional passwords in one secure place.

Password re-use (using the same password across multiple accounts) is a major contributor to data breaches. Stolen credentials can be exploited to gain unauthorized access to other accounts. By using password managers, you can easily create and manage unique, complex passwords for your dozen (or maybe hundreds) or so accounts. These tools enhance security and safeguard your accounts, even if one set of credentials is compromised.

A vault is an encrypted container to store secrets within 1Password. These secrets could be passwords, passphrases or passkeys, but could also be notes, credit card information, licenses, API (application programming interface) credentials, SSH (secure shell) keys, etc. 1Password has numerous built in templates to help you store information securely.

1Password is not mandatory, but it is highly recommended.

Nothing is 100 per cent secure, but the opportunities to improve your cyber security practices and posture far outweighs the risks. Most data breaches are due to weak and/or re-used passwords, which is the exact issue password managers look to solve.

If you’d like to learn more about 1Password’s security design, from encryption to its zero-knowledge architecture, please refer to 1Password’s security design white paper.

To get started, set up your 1Password account (faculty, librarians and staff).

No one at U of T can access any of the passwords or items found within your employee (private) vault. Administrators can only have access to custom (shared) vaults if they are added as a member.

For all faculty, librarians and staff members with a 1Password Business account, you are eligible to redeem a free 1Password Families account as well. This is your personal 1Password account and is within 1Password’s commercial tenant. As a “Family Organizer”, you can invite up to four additional individuals to join your account.

Both the 1Password Business U of T tenant and the 1Password commercial tenant housing your 1Password Families account are hosted with Canadian data centres.

Employee (private) vault:

Once you have been offboarded, your employee vault will be suspended and removed from the U of T 1Password business tenant, deleting all the content within your vault. Please ensure that any passwords which should be transitioned are copied into another vault or exported.

Custom (shared) vaults:

When your 1Password Business account is suspended, you will lose access to the custom vaults you were a member of. The contents of those custom vaults will be unaffected.

1Password Families account:

When your 1Password Business account is suspended, you will retain access to your 1Password Families account. If you have provided payment details, you will notice no changes to your account. If you have not provided payment details, your account will be placed into read-only mode, where you can access and export your passwords, but not add or edit entries. You may either provide payment details and continue using 1Password Families or export your passwords for use in another platform.

1Password Business:

This account is the ideal place to store non-privileged, work-related passwords for the various projects, sites and applications which are not integrated into our UTORid single sign-on. Do not store your personal accounts within your 1Password Business account.

1Password Families:

This account is the ideal place to store the various passwords you use in your personal life, from banking and social media logins to home Wi-Fi codes. Do not store your work-related accounts within your 1Password Families account.