How OneMethod turned a vendor data breach into a strategic advantage

Digital branding agency OneMethod helps companies of all sizes, from startups to global brands, overcome inertia to take their brands to the next level. But when it came to their own security, inertia found a way to sneak in and settle down. "Security has always been important to us, but in the past it had been a bit more reactionary," Max Sawka, Managing Director at OneMethod says. "When there was a problem, we'd talk about it."

IT Director Joe Kegel wanted a more proactive approach to security. OneMethod already used a password manager – a competitor to 1Password – but struggled with adoption. "Our media department, our CX team, our social teams ... they all have a lot of different passwords they need to manage and share," Kegel says. "A password management tool is something I think everyone should be using. It was just hard for me to get them on board with that."

Meanwhile, the company was seeing news about data breaches everywhere. "We've seen the scary headlines," Sawka says. "We started seeing more of that in our internal Slack."

Then came a tipping point. Among the deluge of data breach headlines, Kegel and Sawka recognized their own password management provider.

Kegel went to Sarah Spence, CEO of OneMethod's parent company Tadiem and explained the situation. "I said, ‘Listen. This is a big deal. We need to take it seriously.' It was a big deal for me because I felt responsible for it. I said, ‘This is not as secure as they promised, and from my standpoint we need to move.’"

"It was an easy sell," Kegel says.

That was that, then. The company would switch to a new password management platform – but which one?

"Our founder and CX director had both used 1Password for over a decade," Sawka explains. "We'd always talked about moving to a different platform, especially after that breach. You would've been our first choice because a lot of people used 1Password internally."

Still, Kegel did his due diligence and researched various options. "Everything I read, you were at the top of everyone's list. It made the decision easier," he says.

Kegel started a trial of 1Password Business, then shared his experience. "Right out of the gates, it was a nice fit for us," Sawka says. "It did everything and more than we wanted it to do."

OneMethod’s previous password management platform was confusing and hard to use, Kegel says. 1Password, by comparison, was simple. "The way 1Password manages vaults and users and access, it's so much easier than the other guys. It's so much easier to manage and to see what's going on. Everything's in one place. It saved me so much time compared to the previous system."

"The look and feel is so much nicer," he adds.

Because of that ease of use, the adoption problem didn’t carry over to 1Password. Kegel hasn’t formally tracked the numbers, but he estimates adoption of 1Password at OneMethod to be around 80%.

Kegel also felt more comfortable with 1Password's approach to securing OneMethod's data: adding a Secret Key on top of the account password to create a dual-layered approach to encryption.

"The Secret Key seems like it's a better way. I know that peoples' master passwords on the last system may or may not have been that great. The way 1Password has it set up is better, where you do need those two keys," he says.

OneMethod wasn't alone in keeping an eye on the headlines. The agency’s clients and partners were, too.

"This was, for the executive team, the easiest decision," Sawka says. "Not only that, it became like a proof point, something that we could talk about. We'd start promoting security proactively to our partners."

"We have such a broad range of clients. Some super small startups, local businesses and some global, massive billion-dollar brands. I think the larger enterprises have been very much on top of this and want to know [about our security credentials]. They want to tick the boxes and say, 'Are you secure if we're going to partner with you?' It's become a huge priority to make sure that we have a very secure offering," Sawka says.

And what has the experience of partnering with 1Password been like? "It's been amazing for us working with the 1Password team," Sawka says. "We've had such open communication across our teams. I feel like we speak the same language."

Kegel agrees, adding that everyone he's talked to at 1Password has been knowledgeable.

"If they didn't have the answer, they'd get it right away," he says. "They either ask how things are going or schedule time to make sure things are going the way they should be, which is really good because sometimes I don't have time to do that. It's nice that somebody is being proactive with that."

OneMethod is also excited about a passwordless future. They're waiting for the dust to settle on exactly what that future looks like, but Sawka is confident that however it shakes out, 1Password will be at the forefront. "Wherever passwords are going, I feel pretty confident that 1Password is going to be helping to lead that."