Terminal stage of console

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Joined 1Y ago
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Cake day: Jun 12, 2023

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For MFA apps, Google Authenticator seems to be the norm.

I personally use OTPAuth with sync disabled and regular backups. Mostly because it is easier to organise and back up.

Regarding hardware security keys as part of MFA, you can either get yourself dual USB-C / Lightning or USB-C / USB-A keys from Yubikey. Then just buy a USB-A to USB-C dongle (or vice versa) and keep it on your key chain. That’s mostly what I do, not ideal but does the job.

I also use OnlyKey for some passwords, especially encryption passphrases on some servers and laptops. I usually need to enter them on boot, and it just takes too long to do that manually and I’m lazy.


I agree with you on most of the points. Some security is better than nothing. More security is better than less, layers and all.

Regarding data breaches and malware, and threat models in general. We should not forget phishing too. People voluntarily entering their credentials on a website masquerading as their bank etc.

With all of that, having your credentials split over multiple applications and devices actually saves you from an endpoint compromise and evil maid attacks, at least in a sense of limiting the fallout.

Regarding VeraCrypt and “FREE”. While it is, again, better than nothing, VeraCrypt is fiddly, not always works consistently on all operating systems (I look at you, MacOS), and is susceptible to key logging. I prefer actual certified hardware with physical keypads instead. It is not free and has its own downsides, but it is just something I find more appealing.


As a rule of thumb, do not put all your eggs into one basket. No software is infallible and vulnerabilities can be uncovered and exploited in both open and closed sourced applications.

That’s being said, as long as you don’t store all information necessary for a successful login in your password manager, you should be fine.

So storing credentials for your bank account is fine, as long as it is also protected by MFA and you do not use the same password manager for handling that.

You can store PIN codes from your debit cards in the password manager as long as you do not store card number / expiration / CVV2 there too.

Personally, I keep passwords in a password manager, MFA tokens in a separate authenticator, MFA recovery codes go to FIPS 140-2 certified encrypted USB sticks (3 separate copies). I do store debit card PIN codes in my password manager, but only alongside the last 4 digits of the card number.


I’ve heard some good things about https://www.fastmail.com/, was planning to give it a try at some point. It is not a full fledged replacement for Google Workspace sadly though.