this post was submitted on 09 Oct 2024
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[–] [email protected] 34 points 2 months ago (15 children)

I recently went through most of my accounts and randomized the username, with the thought here being to limit the likelihood of one site being compromised leading to accounts at other sites being compromised. I don't have to remember them due to using a password manager, so it's really no skin off my nose.

I'll use this as a reminder to everyone to improve your security. Some ideas:

  • use a password manager and use random usernames and passwords
  • have multiple email accounts, and don't use your "main" email w/ random signups - I use a simple mnemonic, like "-@domain.com"; so "[email protected]" or "[email protected]" so it's easy for me to remember, but unlikely for a lazy hacker to pwn other accounts (a lot of these are automated); my real email is "[email protected]"
  • use 2FA if offered, even if it's stupid SMS or email based; having any extra step can deter an attacker

Sucks that people are targeting IA, I hope there isn't any lasting damage and that this is a simple defacement/DOS.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Point 2... if you pay for a email aliasing service, you will be locked in. What I suggest is using plus addressing. e.g.

[email protected]

As long as you keep using randomized ones, this'll be as good as an alias against automated and manual login attempts. It just does not hide your base email, which would be

[email protected]

Many email services offer some free aliases. For example, I use one alias, along with my main email that is only used for important services. Other than that, I have an alias that is used for online accounts. This way, your main inbox is free of spammers. And even if your main address were to be the target of a spammer, the automatic spamming software most likely will not chop off the plus part, so you can easily block that email with the specific plus identifier. Not as good as external email aliasing services, but at least you won't be locked into the email aliasing service. Bitwarden has a generator for such things, really nice tbh.

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