How to Get Your Passwords in Order, and Keep It That Way [Part 2 of 5]

Previously, we covered why it’s important to protect your online accounts and why it’s critical that you use strong passwords. We also provided some good tips for creating unique, strong passwords that are easier to remember. You’ll be using that method to create a couple of strong passwords, but ultimately, you’ll be using a password manager by the time you are done with this 5-part guide.

In this part, we’re going to do some housekeeping to make sure that all of your important online accounts are tied to a single email address, and we’re going to walk you through steps to secure that email account.

Here’s where we are at:

1. Create a few strong master passwords
2. Choose a primary email for your accounts
3. Secure that email with a new, strong password
4. Choose a Multi-factor authentication app
5. Set up Multi-factor authentication on your primary email
6. Select and set up a password manager
7. Update every account, secure it, and log it in the password manager
8. Delete old passwords stored in your browser (or in word documents, spreadsheets, sticky notes, or anywhere else)
9. Maintain the course!

Choose a Primary Email Address

All of your online accounts are either connected to an email account, or less frequently, a phone number. What we mean by this is that if you somehow lost your password or needed to prove that you are who you say you are, the service will authenticate you by sending you an email (or in some cases, a text message). 

Most adults have multiple email addresses. You might have email accounts for work, you might have an email account you received when graduating from college, or one provided to you from your ISP. You may also have gmail, yahoo, hotmail, outlook, or other types of email accounts. 

We suggest that for most of your online accounts, you choose one single email account to manage everything (with the exception of work-related logins and accounts, those should always be through your work email). Everything that is personal to you, that you want to have access to and own the rights to indefinitely should all be tied back to one single email inbox that you can trust to remain functional for the rest of your life. 

A Google Gmail account is a good option for this if you already have one. I’d avoid using email accounts from your ISP, your place of work, or other organizations you are a part of. Again, we’re trying to avoid having to put a lot of time and effort into maintaining your digital identity in the future. We’d also suggest avoiding Yahoo accounts, as historically Yahoo has had major issues involving every single email account being compromised.

For this example, we’ll use a Gmail account as our primary email. 

This means that any time I create an account somewhere, I always use the same email address. When I log into an older account and I notice it’s tied to a different email, I adjust it. We’re going to have a step where we do this for all of your accounts shortly, so bear this in mind.

Update Your Primary Email Password

Your primary email needs to be extremely secure. If a criminal were to gain access to your primary email, they’d be able to reset passwords for all of your online accounts. This email needs to be your Fort Knox.

The first thing you need to do is update the password on your primary email. Generate a nice long password using the passphrase trick, and update the password.

I’m going to let you break a pretty serious rule for now, and let you write your new password down. You’ll be destroying the evidence by the end of this guide, so relish the feeling of being a rebel while you can.

For Gmail, you do this by going to your Google Account Settings, click Security, and go to Password.

For Outlook/Hotmail accounts, you can typically update your password here.

For Apple mail accounts, go to your Apple Account Settings. In the Sign-In and Security area choose Password.

Be Sure to Check Out The Rest of the Posts in This Series

This is a five-part guide! Head on back to our blog to see the rest of these articles (we’ll be posting each one every other weekday). You can also click on #Password Guide below to see all of the parts that are currently published.