With news that the United States National Security Agency has deliberately inserted weaknesses into security products and attempted to modify NIST standards, questions have been raised about how these actions affect LastPass and our customers. We want to directly address whether LastPass has been or could be weakened, and whether our users’ data remains secure.

In short, we have not weakened our product or introduced a backdoor, and haven’t been asked to do so. If we were forced by law to take these actions, we’d fight it. If we were unable to successfully fight it, we would consider shutting down the service. We will not break our commitment to our customers.

Although we are not currently in the position of having to consider closing the service, it is important to note that if LastPass had to be shut down, our users would be able to export their data or continue using LastPass in “offline” mode, although online login and syncing would no longer be possible.

We have consistently reiterated that LastPass cannot share what we cannot access. Sensitive user data is encrypted and decrypted locally with a key that is never shared with LastPass. As always, we encourage our users to create a strong master password to better protect themselves from brute-force attacks. Given our technology and lack of access to stored user data, it is more efficient for the NSA or others to try to circumnavigate LastPass and find other ways to obtain user information.

Ultimately, when you use an online service you’re trusting the people behind that service to have your best interests at heart and to fight on your behalf. We have built a tradition of being open and honest with our community, and continue to put the security and privacy of our customers first. We will continue to monitor the situation and change course as needed, with updates to our community when necessary.

Thank you to our community for your ongoing use and support of LastPass.