3 ms·

I maintain a packet of encrypted data that contains an inventory of all of my data repositories along with the credentials needed to access them. It is kept in

I maintain a packet of encrypted data that contains an inventory of all of my data repositories along with the credentials needed to access them. It is kept in a physically separated, secure location. I have designated one person to be, effectively, my executor for these things. They have a cert that allows them to decrypt that data. Their task will be to decrypt the inventory list and determine who gets access to what. For data that I don't want to survive me, I keep it on a server that has a dead-man's switch mechanism that will erase it if I don't reset the switch regularly. I also make it a point to minimize the amount of this stuff that has to be dealt with (the dead-man's switch is part of this effort). I have no social media accounts anymore, for instance, so nothing needs to be done for that kind of thing.

ghostfoxgod 1y ago
Wow, that's quite well-thought-out plan. So you mentioned that this encrypted data and its credentials are kept at a physical location and designated one person to be the executor? Is this person someone you know or some firm which handles things like these? And I don't want to sound rude, but what if the executor passes away before you and you are not aware about it, what's the backup plan?
- JohnFen 1y ago
  > Is this person someone you know or some firm which handles things like these? It's one of my children. I doubt that they would pass away without me knowing about it since I talk with my children frequently, but if that happened then the plan falls apart a bit. There are actually a couple of failure points aside from that in my plan that could lead to a loss of the data. The odds of that happening are low enough that I'm willing to take that risk, though. The actually important stuff such as legal documents are kept in a safe deposit box and with my attorney. Those are the only things that I consider to be mandatory, so those are the most recoverable.
  - ghostfoxgod 1y ago
    That's fair, and it's actually pretty nice that you have thought out about this in such details. Thanks for sharing your wisdom with me, appreciate it :)

ghostfoxgod 1y ago

Wow, that's quite well-thought-out plan. So you mentioned that this encrypted data and its credentials are kept at a physical location and designated one person to be the executor? Is this person someone you know or some firm which handles things like these? And I don't want to sound rude, but what if the executor passes away before you and you are not aware about it, what's the backup plan?

JohnFen 1y ago
> Is this person someone you know or some firm which handles things like these? It's one of my children. I doubt that they would pass away without me knowing about it since I talk with my children frequently, but if that happened then the plan falls apart a bit. There are actually a couple of failure points aside from that in my plan that could lead to a loss of the data. The odds of that happening are low enough that I'm willing to take that risk, though. The actually important stuff such as legal documents are kept in a safe deposit box and with my attorney. Those are the only things that I consider to be mandatory, so those are the most recoverable.
- ghostfoxgod 1y ago
  That's fair, and it's actually pretty nice that you have thought out about this in such details. Thanks for sharing your wisdom with me, appreciate it :)