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Ask Slashdot: How To Bequeath Sensitive Information? 208

Posted by timothy from the and-to-my-terrrible-son-william dept.
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?
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Ask Slashdot: How To Bequeath Sensitive Information? More

Ask Slashdot: How To Bequeath Sensitive Information?

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  • The Giver (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 19, 2014 @02:31PM (#47274653)

    Find a young child to give all your memories to. Hopefully he doesn't run away after learning the horrible secrets of the IT world.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by cjestel ( 788399 )

      Find a young child to give all your memories to. Hopefully he doesn't run away after learning the horrible secrets of the IT world.

      long time since I read that book.

      I use keepass to keep my passwords for various things encrypted on my systems. It works with windows, max, linux, android, and probably iphones. Then you just have one password to share and all of your information is unlocked. Send it to them in a secure fashion or come up with some sort of shared storage they can access (dropbox) so that you can update passwords as they need to change and then you can put your password for keepass in your will so they don't have acces

  • Put all of your files on a CD/DVD and mail it to them, with an explanation of what the files are. That way, the data's off-line until they need it and safe unless somebody breaks in who knows what to look for. And, if your friend's good at hiding things, it may still be safe. (As an example, put the disc in a DVD or Blu-ray case behind another one with a movie on it.)

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ed1023 ( 861273 )
      Yes but with the problems of archived CD/DVDs falling to pieces/ not being readable after 10 years this is not the best idea.
      • It doesn't have to. Enough of the data will need occasional updating that you'll probably be sending a new copy every two or three years.

    • Re:Put it on a disc (Score:5, Funny)

      by Loether ( 769074 ) on Thursday June 19, 2014 @03:52PM (#47275423) Homepage

      (As an example, put the disc in a DVD or Blu-ray case behind another one with a movie on it.)

      It's funny, I do the exact opposite, I hide selected movies behind CD's labeled "Finance Data."

    • Here is what I do: I have a fireproof lock box bolted to the floor in my bedroom closet. My parents and siblings (all of whom live out of state) have the combination. If something happens to me, they can come and open the box, and have access to my will, trust documents, account information, passwords, etc., on paper and in digital format. The lock box also has backups of all the software I have written over my lifetime, decades of email archives, and thousands of photos, family movies, etc. The only i

    • Even better - tell your lawyer. They have whole teams of people dedicated to solving this problem. Let them do the job that they're experts at and stop worrying about it.

      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.

      Yup. And when you give them money they may spend it on hookers and blow - or even donations to the Heritage Foundation or Greenpeace. You'll be dead. Once you've passed on the data and what it represents, its truly not your problem and no longer your concern.

      If it bothers you that much have your lawyers set up a trust instead. Again,

  • A paper record is good. So is a plaintext file well organized and placed on a USB flash drive. Both can be mailed and locked in a safety deposit box, which is about as secure as you can get. Both require physical access, which means any other encryption or security is more likely to confound your subjects than actually secure your data.

    • A paper record is good. So is a plaintext file well organized and placed on a USB flash drive. Both can be mailed and locked in a safety deposit box, which is about as secure as you can get. Both require physical access, which means any other encryption or security is more likely to confound your subjects than actually secure your data.

      In addition, you could encrypt the plaintext file with a well-known algorithm (you can even specify which one and the parameters) using a very strong password contained in your will, to prevent unwanted disclosure.

      You could then apply Base64 encoding to the encrypted plaintext file, and print the result in a large font to enable scanning and OCR to recreate the digital file and decrypt it. This should be reliable enough - I don't think any of these technologies are going to go away any time soon.

  • Lawyer (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Neruocomp ( 513658 )
    Isn't that what lawyers are for?

    • That's right. Use a professional for a professional job. Create a relationship with a decent lawyer (maybe the one who draws up your will), pay them some nominal fee. Use the system the way it was designed.

      If the world goes to hell in a handbasket such that the rule of law has gone by the wayside, you probably don't need all of those logins...

    • Isn't that what lawyers are for?

      Yes, but... it depends on what your biggest concerns are. For example, are you more concerned about delivery, in the sense that you want to make absolutely sure the recipient eventually gets the information, or are you more concerned about "security", in the sense that you DON'T want it getting out prematurely?

      Here is a way to ensure both: strongly encrypt the data. Give your recipients at least two copies, to put in (separate) safe places. Then hire TWO attorneys, unknown to the recipients. Give each o

      • Encrypt and checksum the data you give to your attourney. Give your friend / recipient of the data the checksum to check for tampering, and the key to decrypt the data transfered to them by the attourneys. You now need only trust your friend.

  • Possible... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by retech ( 1228598 ) on Thursday June 19, 2014 @02:41PM (#47274755)
    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.

  • Safety Deposit Box (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 19, 2014 @02:41PM (#47274759)

    you can do what my grandfather did

    wrote up the entire list on paper form and electronic on a flash drive. He laced them in a safety deposit box and shared the key with his executor who in turn had a copy of his will.

    When he did pass away it was a pretty smooth process getting all of the information needed to close accounts, collect on policies, etc. The only thing that had a hiccup was property in a state with different probate laws but that too worked itself out.

    • Re:Safety Deposit Box (Score:5, Informative)

      by azadrozny ( 576352 ) on Thursday June 19, 2014 @03:37PM (#47275321)

      Safe deposit boxes can get funny depending on state law. First don't ever put the will in the box. The executor will need that access the box later. Furthermore, it could take several day or weeks to get the authority to open the box after the person has died, so don't put anything in there that is time critical.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by plopez ( 54068 )

        Give he the will and your executor a key to the safety deposit box with the will in it. In my area they cost about $10/yr, so having 2 or more is an easy option. One for the will and one or more for other purposes, e.g. one for the component which when combined with its 6 mates will open the portals of hell.

  • And...how are you going to handle updating information as you are forced to change your password for whatever reasons?

    I don't have a good solution...I wish I did. There's no reason you can't change your email password today and die before you can document it (which if you're like most people might be a week later).

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by fermion ( 181285 )
      Here is how this was kind of handled in an automatic case with me. I knew the password to the computer where all the credentials were stored, and access to the file cabinet where all the paper stuff was. All the passwords and information was stored in one of those two places.

      For an individual person that may not work, as there may be sensitive sensitive information that you don't want anyone to see. In that case consider a separate account on your computer with the information that everyone will need

  • stone tablets (Score:3)

    by ThatsDrDangerToYou ( 3480047 ) on Thursday June 19, 2014 @02:42PM (#47274773)
    .. worked for me.

  • Document escrow is not new. (Score:3, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 19, 2014 @02:43PM (#47274793)

    Put the passwords, etc on a piece of paper. Put that paper in a large envelope. Give that envelope to a firm that does document escrow (many law firms will do this) with instructions on who should be given a copy after your death. Let your friends and relatives know who has your escrowed docs. They provide proof of your death, and everyone gets a copy.

    Why exactly are we reinventing the wheel here? This is old hat stuff. You don't need to trust anyone not to open their present early. Firms that do document escrow have better theft prevention techniques than anything you're likely to cobble together.

    If you want to go super fancy, use USB keys encrypted with a pre-shared password instead of paper. Then you don't really have to trust the escrow folks.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mlts ( 1038732 )

      I do a similar version of this. I have a few document escrow services and a couple friends that have pieces of my master keys. It is a system that requires "x out of y" pieces to re-assemble the keys, so if one person is out, the key can still be recovered.

      I have a couple symmetric keys and a private key. That way, if RSA or ECC get broken, the core data is still protected until all the escrow places plop down their segment of the keys.

      To be safe, the key part and the SSSS (Shamir's Secret Sharing Scheme

    • Why exactly are we reinventing the wheel here? This is old hat stuff.

      Because self-important nerdulons think they're special or that things being done on computers or online somehow constitutes a separate reality.

    • How about you just give the document escrow folks a one time use pad cypher and simply keep your "secure" documents encrypted using that pad. You can then "update" everybody electronically with an encrypted document that they cannot decrypt until they can obtain the one time pad from escrow.

      While you are alive, you need to protect your copy of the pad, but its not hard to invent some classy way to do that given that the pad has absolutely no useful information in it...Like using a your favorite MP3 or som

  • Is paper still the most secure way to go?

    Yes.

    Specifically, paper, in a safe deposit box, and the key with a lawyer.

  • Use Acid-free paper and just print it out. If you want to be more clandestine and secure, then print out the information about the accounts and the credentials in two separate places. Like for instance:
    Fed-ex the unlabeled passwords
    USPS the un-passworded accounts list

    The truth is, if you put it on a thumb drive, it might fail. If you put it on a CD it might fail (or 3 years from now, your grandma's iBookPro won't be able to read a CD).

    As humans, we read paper documents that were created 100 years

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by eth1 ( 94901 )

      Fed-ex the unlabeled passwords

      USPS the un-passworded accounts list

      Actually, if you're mailing passwords, send the FUTURE passwords. Then once you've verified that the copies have reached the recipients unmolested, change the passwords to what you sent.

  • Write down everything in paper, then lock it away in a fireproof box or a safety deposit box (or both).

    I'm a fan of the phrase "we know how to secure a piece of paper". Not the sticky note taped to your desk that anyone can read and put back without your knowledge, but something really secure. You will know if your lock box has been stolen or broken in to; I would have no idea if someone broke into my e-mail or stole a file off of my computer or backup due to some weird exploit. If you want off-site safe

  • Do this (My solution) (Score:4, Interesting)

    by cbelt3 ( 741637 ) <cbelt AT yahoo DOT com> on Thursday June 19, 2014 @02:46PM (#47274833) Journal

    I keep an encrypted online database of my passwords. Sort of. I use a 'modular' password. One word is different, the other is always the same. So in my will I have the same word (and it's l33t combinations) written down, along with the address of the database. So anyone dealing after my death will know ALL my codes. My wife of 30+ years also keeps a copy of it, and knows the super secret codes.

    I started this after being in a coma, and my wife having to deal with my PDA bleeping about meetings to her until the battery died. Which made her cry even more.

  • Once it hits the other side..

  • Ask a Lawyer (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Rob the Bold ( 788862 ) on Thursday June 19, 2014 @02:46PM (#47274839)

    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.

    • Second this. There are a lot of state and federal laws to navigate here. It may not be necessary or appropriate for someone to use your passwords to access your financial information. You could land yourself in a heap of trouble if you access someones account after they die, even if you are entitled to the money.

    • I'm with you on this one... Come up with $100 or so and pay a lawyer. After all, they got to eat too.

    • Of course, you'd first need to find a lawyer you could trust. That's a task Sisyphus might quail at.
  • You still control it, yet it is remote and will be properly searched when you die. You can put a usb key in or some paper documents with the relevant information.

    • This is by far the best approach out of all of the recommendations. Obviously, sending paper documents (or USB drives) via overnight delivery is relatively immune to intercept, but what if you relatives leave the documents out in an unsafe area? The best place is a safe deposit box, along with any portable valuables (nice watch, jewelry, etc). You can arrange in your will to have your estate trustee then disseminate the contents.

  • All of my financial info is with Quicken on my PC. Everything else related to teh intertube world is recorded on a textfile on my PC with the passwords being represented as a cypher. The cypher is a one or two word comment relating to the password phrase I use (which I, in turn, munge to be first letter of each word or some other pattern, yadda) I've got the username/password cypherlist stored on my smartphone as well (Because I can't keep up anymore) and the cypher key is kept only as a hardcopy along w

    • You're in trouble, then. Quicken's file format is proprietary and unpublished. Your financial data is only as retrievable as Intuit allows it to be.

      Assuming Intuit is still around when your heirs need it and not gone the way of Ashton-Tate or other software institutions of yore.

      But, hey, what are your heirs going to do with your financial data anyway? Use it to settle your estate?

      • But, hey, what are your heirs going to do with your financial data anyway? Use it to settle your estate?

        A surviving spouse might still want to pay the bills and track the investments.

        • If a surviving spouse needs that to know what the bills are, they haven't been very intelligent about things in the first place. Same for investments. For that matter, same for passwords.

        • I would tend to doubt that.

          Quicken, and things like this, are good at handling internal flow data. How much am I spending on overpriced coffee drinks? What is my internal rate of return on investments? Etc. This data is most helpful for a continuous, ongoing business. The wife continues to run the personal finances; the business partner continues to run the business. However, this kind of implies that these people had access, and were using, Quicken prior to the death. So no change there.

          On the other hand,

          • A lot of spouses aren't "intelligent". They don't know what the bills are and I happen to have one who doesn't even know where all my investment accounts are despite being required to sign off on the annual tax return.

            I don't use Quicken. I gave up on it because it didn't have the power to do things like handle non-ESOP stock antics. I use an open-source equivalent and the file format for it is well-documented. Plus it keeps multiple generations of backups automatically.

            I expect that should the need arise t

            • Which kind of speaks to my point. From my personal experience, the spouse (usually the wife) is going to adopt a new accounting system that they are more comfortable with. And my definition of accounting systems run from custom enterprise jobbies to the shoe box variety. All they need at that point are the last statements to update their accounts. Rarely is there a strong need to have access to the old accounting system.

              • Tax audit?

                • For a tax audit, Quicken et. al. only helps you a little. It is just a program with imputed numbers. Who is to say that the inputted numbers are valid? Normally you want original documentation.

                  There are expectations if you are running a business. Mileage forms, etc. Expect that if it is a ongoing business then the spouse / business partner would normally have access to the accounting system prior to death or would have access to the printed (or al least PDFed) year end documents that were generated. I mean

  • Pick a nice, long, secure passphrase. Use it to secure a GPG keypair. Back up this keypair in multiple locations, and with multiple people who know "This is the key that encrypts all of my digital stuff. My family will need it when I die.".

    Use that keypair to encrypt all of your important passwords and data. Back up the encrypted files in multiple locations. Make sure your family knows where these locations are, and why thy and the files they contain are important.

    Download a copy of http://passguardian.com/ [passguardian.com] . Load the saved copy (preferably in an offline PC) in a browser, and use it to convert your passphrase into several N of M parts. ie: Create 10 parts, and require at least 6 to reconstruct the passphrase.

    Use something like http://goqr.me/ [goqr.me] (or any other generator) to create QR codes for the 10 secret shares. Laser print the text share, QR code and some instructions onto a business card sized piece of paper, and have them laminated.

    You now have 10 waterproof, hard to damage cards, any 6 of which will unlock your digital data. Distribute them to trusted parties and locations with instructions to use the shares once they hear and confirm your death. These parties don't have to be literate enough to merge and decrypt the data themselves, they just need to know that it is possible with their share. On your death, they will arrange to bring the shares and data together, and even if they have to hire a nerd to help them, they will unlock what they need.

    • This. I've idly thought about this every now and then, and passguardian.com is exactly the tool I was thinking of.

      In my case, what I'll be distriubting is parts of my LastPass login and password, with the actual data stored there.

  • Weird questions... (Score:3)

    by carlhaagen ( 1021273 ) on Thursday June 19, 2014 @02:50PM (#47274903)
    You state that you have a long career in IT, and at the same time you ask how to electronically hand over information generated within IT. Among those things, you even claim that you have passwords, meaning that they have been stored insecurly. This has "IT Janitor" written all over it, or possibly a concocted story.
    • Nope, not a concocted story. A long career in IT; the last 19 years with a major international bank that took great pains to secure sensitive data both within the data center and in transit between data centers. The problem I am trying to solve is different. With the bank, we were sending sensitive data from one secured facility to another; what I need to do is send sensitive data from my (reasonably secure) home system to a location where I can not be sure of the security. How do I keep sensitive data secu

  • Encrypt the file with a secure password or key, maybe using AESCrypt [aescrypt.com]. Email the encrypted file to the relevant parties. Put the password to the file in your will (keep it under appropriate trusted guard, to be released only on your death). As long as the will and the encrypted file are kept apart until after your death, the file will remain secure until then. You can also modify the encrypted file as things change, encrypt with the same password, and resend the file.

    There's still the possibility that their

  • I got it (Score:3)

    by necro81 ( 917438 ) on Thursday June 19, 2014 @02:52PM (#47274941) Journal
    Take pictures of all the documents and send them via snapchat. Isn't this the kind of application it was made for (restrictred permission viewing)? It's, like, toooootally secure.
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • You will die exactly once (barring a zombie apocalypse, in the event of which I am going to disavow any credit for this post) so why reinvent the wheel if it's only going to get one turn anyway? Hire a reputable family lawyer, set up a will detailing your important documents (and whatever else you are giving away), name an executor, choose a safe place (in meatspace) for the documents to live in the meantime, and then enjoy your retirement.

  • 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 have no control of what happens once the data leaves your control - whether the data is held and transmitted electronically or held and transmitted physically.

    That being said, though IANAL*, it seems that it's your executor who needs the data rather than

  • not binary (Score:2)

    by Tom ( 822 )

    1: Talk to a notary.

    2: Digital methods can and will fail. Either on your end or because the recipient doesn't know how to use them properly.

    Talk to a notary. These people have been handing over sensitive information about bank accounts, secret swiss safe deposit boxes and other stuff from one generation to the next for centuries, and you have a human who can work around any failures.

    Sure, you can find 10 possible digital solutions on the pages of Applied Cryptography, but... goto 2

    throw new Exception("you f

  • One of our clients does exactly this.

    https://www.fidsafe.com/ [fidsafe.com]

  • If you "memories" have ever traversed a public network. Your tax dollars at work.

  • Solve the problem of motivating someone to do your will after you're dead.

  • I jsut picked up a HP 7", 16 GB jelly bean android tablet WITH 4G radio and SIM for $120. Intel NUCS are $200 with RAM and the OS on flash. Raspberry PI, BeagleBones, Intel Gallileo, Arduinos equipped with SD slots. Put your data on discrete hardware, and have at it.

  • The MOST important part is documenting where your assets are, and account numbers. After you die, your assets go into probate, and aren't just simply accessible via logging into your bank. So the username and password isn't really as important as you think it is.

    Seriously, talk with a lawyer who's familiar with inheiritance in your state. Obviously documenting where all your assets are is very important, but don't just assume your loved ones are going to login to your account and transfer money out of it

  • How I Am Doing It (Score:5, Interesting)

    by DERoss ( 1919496 ) on Thursday June 19, 2014 @04:45PM (#47276037)

    First of all, I assume you are serious and not trolling (as some others who replied have asserted).

    My son died in April of 2013. He lived with cancer for four years and then took four months to die. During that time, he ignored my pleas to create an estate plan with an attorney. I am still trying to unravel his estate. Divorced and without a will, his son (my grandson) is his sole heir. My grandson is 6 years old. After my son died, it was too late to create a trust for my grandson. Instead, I had to go to court (several hundreds of dollars in court fees, legal fees, and even appraisal fees) to be appointed the guardian of my grandson's inherited estate. (His mother is the guardian of his person.) I will then have to return to court every two years to report on the status of the guardianship. In the meantime, NO ONE had authority to pay my son's final bills. It took seven months after my son died before I had legal authority to collect his credit union accounts, IRA, Roth IRA, and multiple 401(k) accounts, by which time several bills had already been sent to collection. All the legitimate bills have now been paid, and all known assets have been collected (the last, just a week ago). In July, I will transfer the balance of my son's estate into my grandson's guardianship. That will not end the hassle as I will have to report the status to the court for the next 12 years.

    I am thus on a campaign that every adult needs an estate plan. Even if you have no heirs, even if your estate is small, you need to provide binding instructions on how to handle your assets after you die.

    Before my son started actually dying of cancer, my wife and I started a complete overhaul of our own estate plans. With the exception of our IRAs and Roth IRAs, all our assets are in trusts. We each are the other's beneficiary of the IRAs and Roth IRAs, with the trusts the contingent beneficiary. The trusts require two trustees, currently my wife and me. If one of us dies or becomes incapacitated, the replacement trustee is already identified in the trusts. When we are both dead, the replacement trustee must appoint another trustee to have two. CONTINUITY IS VERY IMPORTANT. Our credit unions, bank, and mutual fund group all have copies of the relevant portion of the trust documents to ensure they accept this continuity.

    Now for the original question: In California, where my wife and I live, a bank safe deposit box is NOT sealed if one of us dies. The box remains available to the other persons who are listed at the bank -- with their signatures -- as having access to it, which includes our daughter and will eventually include our replacement trustee. The complete original documents for our estate plan are in the safe deposit box. Right now, I can see a ring binder with a copy. The replacement trustee has a copy. A list of all our accounts is in the safe deposit box. An inventory of our mutual funds (IRAs and Roth IRAs) is in the safe deposit box.

    In a sealed envelope in the safe deposit box are a floppy disc, a compact disc, and a printout of my OpenPGP public and private keys and my OpenPGP passphrase (the latter otherwise exists only in my brain). (I chose three media since I have no way to predict what formats might become obsolete before I die.) That envelope also contains a list of all my important Internet passwords, which are encrypted on my PC.

    I have an unencrypted list on my PC titled "Where Is It?" that describes where everything should be found: checkbooks, bank statements, insurance policies, durable powers of attorney for health care, mutual fund statements, deed to our house, etc. When I update this list, I E-mail a copy to our daughter; another copy is in the ring binder with our estate plan. Also in the ring binder is the paperwork for our purchase of burial plots.

  • My stuff is on a CD in the bookcase.

  • FTA, "At the end of it all, I will have documentation on financial accounts, password, etc."

    It sounds like you are documenting sensitive company or client information. As such it is beyond the scope of you as an individual to place any of this information in a private store. You need some sort of formal business procedure for this. One place I worked THE COMPANY had safety deposit boxes. At another we would put emergency back up passwords in an envelope and give them to the administrative assistant who wou

  • There's a file on my computer called "for my daughter". It's got everything she needs to know. Also backed up on a CD in the bookcase.

    Besides the required stuff, I used the opportunity to also wax long and poetic about my life and how her life changed mine, and wrote about all the interesting things about her childhood that I could remember. Included words of (hopefully) wisdom. I don't remember where I got the idea from, but since I was writing everything else down, decided to include that as well, so

  • Why on earth would you want to tell anybody the passwords for your financial stuff? Just to save them some bad traffic?

    If you die and they access it after the fact, they'll go to jail.

    They'll just have to go to the normal system, walking to the bank with a court order respecting your will from your lawyer or whatever else to prove that they inherited your money legally.

    Unless it's just to change your social networking status to 'deceased' they won't need any of those.

    Now if you had a 1 -3 figure slashdot ac

  • 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.

    Put an envelope and its contents in a UL rated fire safe and it will most likely survive any household disaster you could name. The diaries, account books, and letters of family members active in the early nineteenth century remain perfectly legible after close on to 200 years.

  • I wrote a subroutine call into my will (Score:3)

    by Applehu Akbar ( 2968043 ) on Thursday June 19, 2014 @06:28PM (#47277021)

    The paper copy that is notarized and filed away at the bank includes the reference "Refer to folder X in file drawer Y of my home office file for a current list of online file names, site names and logins." I can easily keep this list current without having to keep re-issuing the official will.

  • Its not just death that is the problem. My ex-wife is in a coma, not dead. Helping the kids access her data involved an EC2 cloud of GPUs. Please people, leave your password around so your loved-ones can obtain it even without a death certificate or will, because there are some situations that are even more complicated than simple old death.

    Your safety deposit box schemes all mostly fail on this point alone.

    --M

  • why? (Score:2)

    by dala1 ( 1842368 )

    This honestly seems over complicated. Why should anyone have this information before you die, especially financial information? The simple thing to do is put a hard copy (sealed, of course) of the information in a safety deposit box with a copy of your will. As long as your executor knows about the box, they can access it after you die and distribute the information per your instructions.

  • In the last several years, things have happened. Someone very close to me died with no notice. Quite literally, I saw him alive and normal at home. I went outside. A few minutes later I went back inside and he was dead. Natural causes.

    I went in for spine surgery a few weeks ago. I could have walked away from it, or have been rolled away to the cemetery.

    I always make sure someone knows how to do what I do. That person usually knows where everything is. They don't necessarily have all my passwords, bu

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