So. I tried bitwarden for a while with 2fa. I absolutely did not realize that if you lose your 2fa you are done in that service. So yeah. Time to rebuild.

I’m attempting to go all in on proton stuff ATM. Drive, email, vpn and password manager.

What’s the easiest way to set everything up in a way that the whole system is safe and that minimizes the chance of me locking myself out ?

Stuff like. Do I bother with 2fa? What are yubikeys. Are these the answer? Do I 2fa all.accounts other than the protonmail one ?

Long single use case passwords or memorizable ones ?

Do I do throwaway emails or everything signs up to my main one ?

Sorry if I overloaded questions. But id love go get insight from people with more experience.

Edit. And oh. Threat model.

Id love yo not lose accounts if someone physically steals one of my devices.

I’d love to not get hsckdd online by someone random that is not targeting me specifically

And in broad strokes. I’d like to keep all my accounts as private as possible from private companies and governments. But im flexible on this one if its too much hassle.

  • FreemanEnglish
    3•1 year ago

    Keep backups of all things in a manual fashion.

    Bitwarden is fine. BUt have a couple MFA options, including a set of printed recovery codes in a desk/safe etc.

    Personally I use Google Authenticator TOTP (and not the version that syncs it to the cloud.). Instead I have a backup phone I keep in a fireproof safe and that also has a set of the codes. (Just do the “transfer” operation but at the end choose not to delete the codes from the original phone and boom you have TOTP on 2 devices.

    I also use a Yubikey here and there, but only when I am physically a home (Its a PITA to move around).

    Finally I have recovery/One time codes saved and printed. Just in case all else fails.

    For any services that REQUIRE you to use SMS mfa, I go with something like google voice. If they block GV numbers, then i generally bail out of using the service…This especially includes banks.

    The goal is

    1. No one MFA loss (Ie: phone stolen) will lose access to all accounts.
    2. An ability to recover even if all phones are lost.
    3. No storing totp for anything important inside bitwarden.
      • FreemanEnglish
        2•1 year ago

        yeah. I think that’s a good idea. Personally I just keep them in a simple safe that is effective, preferably fire rated to an extent or just somewhere offsite. Even a safety deposit box is a great option.

        I even sometimes just keep them in an encrypted fileshare on my synology NAS that is backed up and encrypted. But thats just extra for a non-tech person. For someone like my parents etc I just tell them to print them and keep them in safe space you wont misplace them. Because ideally the phone and your backup phone or a yubikey should have the main versions of MFA authentication.

        Usually the recovery codes are 6-8 numbers that are a one time use thing.

        Otherwise, i literally dont know many of my passwords off hand. The only ones I do are FDE decryption codes, and maybe my computer login.