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Ask Slashdot: How To Bequeath Sensitive Information?
New submitter UrsaMajor987 (3604759) writes I recently retired after a long career in IT. I am not ready to kick the bucket quite yet, but having seen the difficulty created by people dying without a will and documenting what they have and where it is, I am busy doing just that. At the end of it all, I will have documentation on financial accounts, passwords, etc., which I will want to share with a few people who are pretty far away. I can always print a copy and have it delivered to them, but is there any way to share this sort of information electronically? There are lots of things to secure transmission of data, but once it arrives on the recipients' desktop, you run the risk of their system being compromised and exposing the data. Does anyone have any suggestions? Is paper still the most secure way to go?
You could send them an encrypted file (#1) now with all the info you wish to share with them. Along with a password for a file that will arrive when you die. Then set up a service like deathswitch.com and have another encrypted file sent to them (#2). The password they already possess unlocks #2 and that contains the password(s) for #1.
Even though the "ask a lawyer, not Slashdot" answer gets trotted out all the time, I think it's appropriate here. Lawyers do this sort of thing for a living. Probably cheaper in the long run to ask one.
I am not a crackpot.