How to give me access safely
To look after your store I need some access to it. The aim is that nobody has to send a password by email, text or chat, and that you stay the owner of everything. Here is how it works.
The short version
- You stay the owner. Your hosting, domain, payment and admin accounts stay in your name. I never need your owner login.
- I work from my own named account on each system, with the lowest permission that does the job. That makes it easy to see what I did and easy to remove me.
- Invitations first. For most things you invite my email address, or add a key that is only useful to me. Nothing secret has to travel.
- If a secret really must be shared, it goes through an encrypted reply (below), never ordinary email.
What I will ask for
Not every store needs every item. I will send you a short list tailored to yours.
The server (SSH)
I send you a public key. You, or your host, add it to the server. A public key is not a secret and cannot be used by anyone but me. There is no password to share.
Your Magento admin
Create an administrator user for me using the email address I give you, with any temporary password. I use “forgot password” to choose my own, and set up the extra security code on my own device, so the password never passes through email or chat.
Cloudflare, Google Cloud, GitHub, your domain registrar, your hosting control panel
Invite my email address as a member with a named role. Most of these have a “team” or “users” page for it. If yours does not, create a separate login for me rather than sharing yours.
Your payment provider (PayPal, Stripe and similar)
Add me as a team member with the narrowest role that lets me do what we agreed. I do not need, and will not ask for, the owner login.
If a secret has to be shared
Some things have no invitation option, such as a database password or an API key. For those I use an encrypted, password-protected email. You do not need an account or any special software.
- I send you a message from my encrypted mailbox (Proton Mail). In your inbox you will see a normal email with a link.
- I give you the unlock password separately, by phone or text. That way no single message holds everything.
- Click the link, choose Unlock message and enter that password.
- Use Reply securely to send me what I asked for. The reply is encrypted too. The secure reply page allows a limited number of replies, so put everything in one message.
- The message deletes itself after a short time. I move what you sent into my encrypted password manager straight away and delete the message.
Please do not send secrets in ordinary email, WhatsApp, a support ticket or a shared document, even if that is how you have done it with other suppliers. If you already have, that is fine: we set up access properly and you change that password afterwards.
What I do with access
- Anything you share is kept in an encrypted password manager, in a private area for your store only. It is never shared with anyone else or reused for another customer.
- I keep a written record of every way in that I hold on your systems, what it is for and when it was given.
- I turn on two-step verification on my accounts wherever it is available.
- I use the access only for the work in your care plan, and tell you before anything that goes beyond it.
When we stop working together
- I remove my accounts and keys from every system on that record, and tell you when it is done.
- I delete what I hold for you, and confirm that in writing.
- If any passwords or keys were shared with me, I recommend changing them. Because I did not create them and you stay the owner, that is a quick job for you.
You can ask me at any time for the list of access I hold on your store.
Questions about any of this, or a system that is not on the list?