Scammers just had full access to my computer! they found Secret Key. what to do?

AnnaStevens
AnnaStevens
Community Member

Scammers got me to open my computer and they searched it. I know they found my Secret Key. they did not find my master password which is in my head. Should I change my Secret Key? they have my email address, cell phone number, etc. etc.


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Comments

  • jpgoldberg
    jpgoldberg
    1Password Alumni

    First of all don't panic, @AnnaStevens. Your Master Password is keeping you safe.

    There are two cases to consider. Neither should lead to panic. There is nothing an attacker can do with only your Secret Key. And from what you say, it sounds like the "better case" scenario is what you are facing

    The better case

    If they only have your Secret Key but do not have a copy of your encrypted 1Password data then you are in a fine position. You should change your Secret Key, which you can do by logging into the your 1Password account on the web, going to your name in the upper right corner. Click on that and select "My Profile". Once you are at your profile page, you should see "Regenerate Secret Key". Then just go through that process.

    This is not something that you need to do immediately, but do it in the coming week so that you don't forget to do it.

    The worst case

    If they got both your Secret Key and a copy of your encrypted 1Password data then everything depends on how strong your Master Password is. That is, an attacker with your encrypted data and your Secret Key can try to run automated tests of Master Password guesses on the copy of your data that they acquired.

    In this worst case (which requires both your Secret Key and your encrypted data falling into their hands) an attacker might try a password cracking attempt against their copy of the data. They would not need to connect to our server to perform such an attempt. Depending on the resources that an attacker throws at the problem and the strength of your Master Password, they might end up giving up before being able to make enough guesses to guess your Master Password.

    In this scenario, if you have a weak Master Password then you should start changing your most important passwords relatively soon. But we don't know if it will take weeks, months, years, decades or never for the attacker to guess your Master Password. But unless your Master Password is terrible, they won't be able to guess it immediately (unless they are throwing a lot of very expensive equipment at cracking it.

  • AnnaStevens
    AnnaStevens
    Community Member

    Thank you!

  • deviantintegral
    deviantintegral
    Community Member

    You may want to take your computer in to an Apple Store to have them check to see if the scammers left any additional malware on your computer. If they were sophisticated enough to look for a 1Password secret key, it wouldn't be surprising if they installed a keylogger as well.

  • That seems like reasonable advice as well. :)

    Ben

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