Your Data and Cyber Business After You're Gone

Reader Mountain Splash writes "The New York Times has a decent thought-inspiring article questioning what happens to our stored data and who owns the rights to it after we die. I have to admit that, while this dilemma had already crossed my mind many months ago, I've been rather slow to do something about handling it. While considering the same, though, what I did do was start a very detailed list of my many various emailboxes, IM monikers, cyber buddies, and yes, passwords (complete with encrypted hints to be stored separately). I have also already approached my roomie and my sister about following up with that list for me as a last wish if and when the inevitable should occur. Just wondering if everyone else has done the same or similar... Anyone gone so far as to have already filed their information along with their will with their family lawyer?"

Comments

well..

[mastergoon]

I don't really care enough about what happens to my e-mail after I die to bother with all that crap. I don't really think anybody really is going to need my encrypted data after I died, or they would have had a key while I was alive.

Use Attorney for business (and personal financial)

[surfinbox]

For business related death I have prepared extensive documentation on servers, passwords, accounts, banking relationships, etc. and have filed that in my bank lock-box. I have informed my attorney whom I wish to have handle those affairs in my absence (a trusted friend/partner). The attorney has that on record in my will. The asset disposal itself is a normal course of handling the estate, but telling Amazon, PayPal, Authorize.net, and others who have my finanicals to shut off my account is no small effort. Finding the trusted friend is not trivial either.

Old Movie websites

[dilweed]

Ever visited a website for a movie that had been released 3 or 4 years ago? The sites just sit there on a server somwhere, ignored largely.

I had a friend commit suicide rather suddenly a few years ago. His site is still up at AOL. I can still read messages he posted and see pictures of him here and there on the net. He left quite a digital legacy.

It's truely intersting, the things we leave behind and we don't realize it.

The "Hit by a bus" file

[doublem]

We have what's called the "Hit by a bus" file where I work. It's supposed to be a set of sealed envelopes to be opened in the event of an emergency.

Sadly, we had a server die while the Network Admin was on vacation, and we discovered his was blank. Seems he wants to take all our configuration, login and server data to his grave.

And it STILL hasn't been updated

Re:We need to learn to let go

[Smitedogg]

Maybe he didn't want anyone reading his personal files? That seems like the most obvious explanation to me.

Or he died unexpectedly, and had made clear at many points that the information on his computer was extremely important to him. You'd honor your brother or uncles wish, right? Same thing here. Code he's worked on, things he valued, information he wanted kept 'alive', as it were.

Someone else mentioned that I could just take the HDD out and put it in another box to recover the files. I could do that, but it's really a matter of time. I ran crack and john against it, tried a few tricks like booting into single user mode, etc etc, but that's all stuff I can do while I'm twiddling away at something else. Between school, my daughter, and 'life', I'm pretty busy and haven't had the time to do some old fashioned data recovery. I have a few days free coming up, I'll probably do it then.

Tomm / Dogg

We a experiencing a cultural transition.

[Futurepower(R)]

I made a password list for a customer, that, over time, has grown to 3,849 words. (There is a lot of explanation about how accounts are configured.)

I encrypted that list with an unguessable password that includes punctuation and numbers, using the excellent GnuPG.

I sent the encrypted file by email to every responsible person who works for the customer, including the CEO. I demanded that everyone learn the master password, because otherwise, if something happened to me, they would have problems with their accounts and web site. I also copied the file to their hard drives.

Although I have made several demands in strong language, no one, NO ONE, has bothered to get the master password from me, even though I have suggested it in person to several people several times. So, they have the file, but have no access to it.

The fact is, the new world of computing (okay, not new to me or you) requires a huge cultural change, and the average person has mostly not gone very far in making that change.

Re:We a experiencing a cultural transition.

[Idarubicin]

Although I have made several demands in strong language, no one, NO ONE, has bothered to get the master password from me, even though I have suggested it in person to several people several times. So, they have the file, but have no access to it.

Or you could write out the password and put it into a safe deposit box at the bank. Leave the key with your attorney, and instructions in your will. Better yet, give the entire password list to the company attorney.

Damn right nobody at the company wants to have access to all your passwords. What if you snap and decide to commit some act of information sabotage? Now you've got plausible deniability--'It only happened after I oh-so-responsibly (*ahem*) gave my passwords to senior management.'

Further, what happens if any of those senior officials leaves the company before you die? Now you've got to create a new password file and master password that they all have to rememorize--or the officer who left gets to sell all your secrets to the company's chief competitor.

Sometimes the most technical solution isn't the best.

Your $ubscriptions, etc, continue

[beachplum]

When my partner died, it was a nightmare to get all the dialup services cancelled, etc. etc. Anybody who has a credit card which is automatically billed, that billing goes on regardless - not that dead people have to worry about credit ratings, but it can cost your estate (read, your friends and family) a lot of time and money.

Also, it is most offensive to have to send death certificates to total strangers, in order to document that the person you say is dead, really is dead, thereby enabling the company to cancel your whatever-it-is. Believe me, I went through this with dialups and credit card companies. It took months to finally get every branch of every company involved to accept that they were not getting any more money. I have never seen a dead person rack up so many late charges on a credit card. After the company was notified of the death. Go figure!

It is so much better to be over-prepared than under-prepared. Somebody has to clean up the wreckage after you die, and it is much easier to gove that person the tools they need to do the job.

Re:A bit off topic

[genesplicer]

I have the same arrangement with an old roommate of mine - we both keep our pr0n in a specific directory of the same name and location. In the unfortunate event that one of us passes away, the other is to delete that directory before family members get ahold of the computer (or, more likely, make a backup copy for themselves, then delete :) ) ...

Re:A bit off topic

[dr_dank]

I'm told this is customary in the military. If someone is killed, his army buddy or CO will clear out the pics with thai prostitutes and other offending items from their personal effects so their memory won't be tarnished.