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Discussion on: Should I have separate GitHub accounts for personal and professional projects?

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po0q profile image
pO0q 🦄

I usually don't like peremptory assertions, but here I would say definitely yes. There are security risks too:

  • you may disclose confidential information publicly
  • you might leak credentials

If something bad happens to you, it's uncool but it's only you, but if you mess up with your customers/employers, it's a different case.

More generally, it's better not to put all your eggs in one basket, and if you find it a bit overkill or inconvenient, use a password manager.

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marksre profile image
Mark Bainter

I don't understand the risk you're envisioning here. Can you elaborate?

We shouldn't be any more careless with our personal GitHub than our work one, so what are we talking about here?

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michaelmior profile image
Michael Mior

Unfortunately a password manager doesn't really solve much of the inconvenience of needing to log out, log back in, and use 2FA again.

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po0q profile image
pO0q 🦄

some password managers do integrate 2fa

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michaelmior profile image
Michael Mior

Yes, some do. But it's still another step to do in order to switch accounts rather than just use the same account.

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po0q profile image
pO0q 🦄

convenience should not prevail over security, to me.

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michaelmior profile image
Michael Mior

I generally agree. Although security and convenience is almost always a tradeoff. You need to weigh the possible security risks against the inconvenience. For me, I don't see the security risk as significant enough to warrant the inconvenience. For someone else, that decision might be different.