The email password is used nowhere else
In one line
A password leaked from another site can open your email. Once email is open, every account that recovers through it can fall together.
What it costs
Free. The browser can store the passwords. The hard part is dropping the one password you use everywhere.
What you get
CISA says to use a different long password on every account and to keep them in a password manager. The book grades this C.
How strong the evidence is
Source
U.S. CISA. Use Strong Passwords.
Watch-outs
The book says not to keep passwords in a chat “favorites” list or in an unlocked note.
Adapted from HowToLiveBetter item 14-2.
Next habitRelated
Best valueTurn on two-step verification. Prefer the prompt
In a Google study, device prompts blocked over 94% of phishing takeovers and 100% of automated ones. Prompts beat text-message codes. Start with email.
A lock screen on the phone, a PIN on the SIM
A lost phone still has a SIM. Someone can move that SIM and receive your codes. A SIM PIN stops that at the moment they move the card.
Lost the phone? Suspend the SIM first
The order is: suspend the SIM, lock the phone remotely, change email and payment passwords from a computer, file a police report, then freeze cards if you need to. You can call the carrier from a borrowed phone.