How I learned to use multiple email addresses to keep all my digital accounts secure

Having a single email address for everything was a mistake
To better understand why this precaution is important, let’s put ourselves for a moment in the mind of a cybercriminal. If, as an attacker, I gain access to a victim’s primary email address, I can easily scan their inbox to discover what other services they use. For example, upon finding emails from Amazon or social media, I could request password resets directly. If the victim also made the common mistake of reusing the same password—and I somehow managed to do so—I wouldn’t even have to put in much effort: simply trying that password to access multiple platforms would create a serious domino effect.

The aforementioned solution was only temporary. It worked for me for a while, but we live in such a dynamic world that forces us to evolve, not only to better utilize technology, but also to ensure our security and privacy. Over the years, maintaining a contact email and a “secret” email address was no longer enough. I discovered that my contact email address wasn’t that public, nor was the “secret” one that private. Even though the latter wasn’t on my credit card, I trusted it to any online service that asked me to register. And, as we know, companies, no matter how large, don’t always adequately protect their users’ data. There have been high-profile breaches, such as the Yahoo breach in 2016 or the Quora breach in 2018.