Cory Doctorow’s latest column, “When I’m dead, how will my loved ones break my password?“, gives a few good solutions to the problem of what to do with those encrypted hard-drives and network passwords, should you (or your loved one) pass away. Some people have commented that these solutions might be a tad paranoid. Is there such a thing as being “too paranoid” when it comes to your private data?
This is certainly not too paranoid. Actually, I’ve thought about similar stuff before. But it’s also a bit frightening that changing a single bit (or well, more than just a single one :P) on your hard drive can also render your private data unusable to yourself if you use disk encryption (I know someone who this actually happened to).
@Saga: Well even if you don’t use use disk encryption changing of bits can render your private data unusable to yourself, that’s why there are backups and backup schemes.
Cryptography doesn’t ensure against failure, just unauthorised access. Backups are still smart.
On the bigger question, is there such a thing as being “too paranoid” – yes indeed there is. It’s called clinically paranoid or delusions – there’s a fine line between being just paranoid enough (well what people would call cautious) and being overdue for a diagnosis.
Cost/Benefit or Risk assessment is probably a part of it. A reality check could probably be in order, too. Cory Doctorow implies that he encrypts everything he has written since the early 80s – which I find strange, unless it is a matter of convenience rather than paranoia. I’m pretty sure I can dig up for instance a certain piece of “How will my loved ones break my password” easier than breaking his key…
@andy: Cory Doctorow said, on twitter, that he encrypts the whole drive. So I’d say it’s a matter of convenience rather than paranoia ;)
andy: Sorry, I was a bit unspecific here. I know someone who accidentally overwrote his LVM on an encrypted hard disk. Sure, it is (very, very) stupid to NOT have backups, but still, you can see here how much data you can lose by just overwriting a bit of your hard disk by accident…
I don’t think this represents excessive paranoia, but I do think it seems pointless to wonder about what happens to your data after you die. It all gets lost; who cares? Anything of value to others should live somewhere other than your personal machines, and anything else doesn’t matter anymore.
Dear Runa
Just in case I might perish before you get home, I want you to know this.
I wrote down all my passphrases and my personal indenficiation numbers on the last page of my cookbook. The key to your apartment is on my keychain in my purple purse. And please don’t let my parents play “Eg ser at du er trøtt” by Bjørn Eidsvåg at my funeral.
Kisses, Aase