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Workshop
25 May – 7 June 2022 • Issue 632STEP
2From now on, when Bitwarden detects you setting up
new logins via a web page, it will offer to save the
username and password you’ve just created. If you
want to generate a random username, however, you’ll have to do
it through the Bitwarden program. Launch it, log in using the
password you created in Step 1, and click the ‘+’^1 at the bottom
of the second column to create a new entry. Give the entry a
name^2 that will help you identify it in future.STEP
3Click the circular arrows to the right of Username^1 ,
and Bitwarden will generate a random username. If the
account you’re setting up requires an email address
instead, click Options^2 and choose Plus Addressed Email^3 ,
then type your email address at the bottom of the form^4.
Bitwarden adds a random collection of letters and numbers
between your name and the @ in your address^5. Not all email
services support this, but Gmail and Outlook do, for example.Randomise your username to make
online accounts more secure
What you need: Bitwarden software and browser plug-in
Time required: 30 minutesP
assword manager Bitwarden has
added a handy new feature that
lets you create random usernames to
go with your random passwords. This
makes a lot of sense – randomising the
account name you use to log into sites
makes it even more difficult forcriminals to hack your account as
they’ll have to get lucky twice.
Although you can’t generate
usernames using Bitwarden’s browser
plug-in at the time of writing, you can
do it through its desktop program, as
we’ll show you here.STEP
1Go to http://www.snipca.
com/41821 and download
Bitwarden for Windows, and
install the Bitwarden extension for
your browser. Now click ‘Create a
Free Account’^1 , and fill in the form
to set it up. The master password you
enter during this process is the one
you’ll use to unlock all your other
passwords, so don’t re-use a
password from elsewhere. Make it
unguessable and ensure you
remember it. 12
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