Map your critical accounts
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The idea in everyday life
Inventory accounts by consequence and recovery relationship. Start with primary email, mobile carrier, password manager, identity providers, finance, cloud storage, work, and social accounts. Record the official URL, recovery method, devices, and whether the account can reset others.
Some accounts can reset the passwords for others. Protect email and phone access first because they often unlock other accounts.
One step at a time.
Use the sample or information you have permission to use. Keep your work as you go. You can pause between steps.
- 1
List primary email, phone carrier, banking, cloud storage, social, work, tax, and password-manager accounts.
- 2
Mark what each account can reset, what data it holds, and the impact of takeover.
- 3
Prioritize email, password manager, phone carrier, financial accounts, and cloud backups.
- 4
Record official support and recovery URLs in a secure offline location.
See how it works.
Sam discovers that an old email address can recover both a current inbox and a payment account. The old inbox has a reused password and no MFA, so it is upgraded or removed before lower-risk entertainment accounts are reviewed.
Did you cover these?
- Every account capable of resetting another is marked critical.
- Recovery addresses and phone numbers are current and controlled.
- Unknown sessions, connected apps, and forwarding rules are reviewed.
What to finish
A critical-account map ranked by impact and recovery dependency.
Watch for this
Securing social accounts while the email address that resets them remains weak.
How can I tell I understand it?
You can name the three accounts that function as master keys to your digital life.
Quick knowledge check
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Answer all 3 questions above and get at least 2 right. You can review the explanations and try again.
Go to the knowledge checkOptional course overview video
Secure Our World
From Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. Watch here or open it on YouTube .
Use CISA's Secure Our World sequence to prioritize simple protective actions, then apply them first to the accounts with the greatest recovery power.Tools, templates, and lesson sources
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Sources and further reading
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