Second Gmail address for security

nosuperwoman

I need to change my email address that I use for financial stuff because Plusnet are transferring it to another provider. It occurred to me that I could set up another Gmail address just for financial stuff and that might be more secure than using the same address for everything. Would that work?
If this is a silly question please forgive me, I'm the last of the luddites

oldernonethewiser

Not a silly question.

You can have as many addresses on as many email providers as you like.

Mark_d

There's nothing wrong with having different email addresses for different purposes but I don't see how it would be more secure.  If you're interested in something more secure, then I would suggest Tuta or Proton mail services.

Personally I opt to have my own domain name.  It's like having a personalised number plate.  It means I can change my email provider periodically to get better price/service, but still have the same email address.

Frozen_up_north

As per Mark, I use both Tuta (previously known as Tutanota), and Proton mail. Tuta is very easy and is based in Germany, they don't give your data to anyone asking (unlike Gmail).

I use Tuta for anything council/government related, which keeps it separate from my general purpose Gmail stuff. There are phone apps for Tuta.

https://tuta.com/

vacheron

Mark_d said:

There's nothing wrong with having different email addresses for different purposes but I don't see how it would be more secure.  If you're interested in something more secure, then I would suggest Tuta or Proton mail services.

Personally I opt to have my own domain name.  It's like having a personalised number plate.  It means I can change my email provider periodically to get better price/service, but still have the same email address.

I have my own domain too, and one security advantage is that I use a different e-mail addresses for each different organisation I register with, e.g. amazon@mydomain.com, bbc@mydomain.com, etc.

This gives 2 security advantages:

• Firstly if my BBC account credentials were ever leaked, the login would not work on Amazon even if the password was the same as the e-mail address would not match.

• Secondly, If I start getting spam or phishing attempts, I can tell immediately because for example, all my genuine Santander correspondence would be sent to santander@mydomain.com, so any e-mails sent to any other address would immediatley ring alarm bells. It also tells me who originally leaked my info it because they would be the only people who I ever registered that e-mail address to. (i'm looking at you MyFitnessPal, Aria PC, Dixons!      

Eyeful

Having different email address for different purposes is an exhalent idea!
Suggest you look in to using Proton Mail instead of Gmail.

Murmansk

If you want a separate Gmail address without having to create a new Gmail account you could try using the system whereby you add a plus sign and a word so for example with an address of myname@gmail.com you could make a new address myname+bank@gmail.com and stuff sent to that address would still arrive in your Gmail account

Exodi

I'd suggest given what the OP said, it's probably a tad unrealistic to discuss setting up their own domain with custom email addresses for each supplier. Next you guys will be recommending setting yourself up as your own ISP, and then running the fibre lines into your own house so you can be sure they've not been tampered with.

FWIW I don't think it's worth focusing on the email address - much more mileage in effective MFA (mandatory for online banking). If I knew someones email address and password (assuming they didn't have MFA on their email account enabled), there's very little I could do with most financial accounts.

If you are focused on email account security, by far the simplest solution would be to use one email address but not re-use the password (and rely on a secure password manager), though I'm sure people will challenge that also - write them down on a bit of paper if it helps you sleep at night.

Eyeful

In this day and age you would think that for the important stuff at least, people would already be using:
(a) Multifactor Authorisation.
(b) Password Manager. 
(c) A long different password of at least 20 characters, for each organisation they have an account with.

A different Email address is just an addition to the above.

If the OP does not already have PWM, I suggest they have a look at these two free ones: (i) Bitwarden (ii) Keepass XC.

Avoid SMS MFA, as that is open to sim swapping attacks, which are on the rise.

 

nosuperwoman

Thanks to all of you for replying! 
The domain name suggestion is intriguing but, as Exodi pointed out, a bit ambitious for me. I do use MFA but the SIM swap stuff I've been reading about is scary on that front. I like to think that I have good password management but I think a PWM is a better idea.
Lots to think about! 

vacheron

Exodi said:

I'd suggest given what the OP said, it's probably a tad unrealistic to discuss setting up their own domain with custom email addresses for each supplier. Next you guys will be recommending setting yourself up as your own ISP, and then running the fibre lines into your own house so you can be sure they've not been tampered with.

I don't think either of us who mentioned domains in this thread recommended this to the OP for their personal use.

I only started doing this because I owned the domain anyway.

I've owned the domain since before the likes of gMail, Yahoo or Hotmail existed, so each time you switched ISP's you had to change all your registered e-mail addresses with every organisation. Owning a domain was (back then) simply a convenient workaround.