It’s no secret I’m a big fan of AgileBits 1Password. They just introduced a new feature called “Watchtower” which helps identify websites that have potential vulnerabilities where you may need to change your password. The new feature is especially useful for tracking websites that experienced a vulnerability but have since been fixed such as those effected by Heartbleed. In the desktop version it shows up in the Security Audit section as “Watchtower”. Using this feature takes all the work out of looking up all your website logins to see if they had a problem and if they have been fixed.
Clicking it shows you all websites/logins that you potentially need to change your passwords for. Handy! Clicking a website/login from the list shows the account just as it would had you chose it normally, with the exception of a red banner across top.
Click the red banner to get more information about why it’s been flagged by Watchtower.
Now that you know it’s OK to change the password, go to site, login, and start the change process. Most will have you enter the old password, which you can easily get from 1Password. When filling it out the new password, I recommend using the 1Password Generator using a minimum of 20 characters, 3 symbols, and 2 digits, with no repeats. The more the better. Those are MINIMUM suggestions. This could be too complex for some websites so you may need to adjust it downward such as the example below. The password depicted has not been used, it is merely an example of how you can control the generation of the password if you need to.
Most change forms will be detected by 1Password and you’ll be asked to update the 1Password entry for the account with the new password. Just click the “Update” button and consider it done.
Walk through the list of websites/logins identified by Watchtower and you’ll be safe before you know it.
