Backup Plan

We live in a time where information is worth more than money. Information that may seem worthless to us (trivial) may turn out to be crucial to our security. I am talking about information in electronic form, i.e. our email and passwords.

The first thing that will come to your mind is - my email is worthless. It won’t do anyone any good if someone hacks into it. What good is my email to him? I’m not some businessman who spends who knows how much money and has to worry about the security of his information. I’m just an average person.

However, few people realize how wrong they can be at the beginning of what they claim. Our information, i.e. e-mail, is often used to communicate with the bank. Starting from this, for example, someone who gets into our mailbox will continue to dig. Starting with money, through social media, they will dig and dig. Until at some point we understand how important information about an ordinary person is, because it can lead us to the edge from which there is no return. Therefore, even being an ordinary person, we must take care of the security of our information as if our and others’ lives depended on it.

In the era of two-step verification (2FA) and password managers (i.e. 1Password or LastPass) we try to secure our data as much as possible.

If we are already at the stage where we enable two-factor authentication (ourselves, of our own free will), we are more aware than others of the danger lurking. If we also use a password manager and try to use a unique password for each site we log in to (using a password generator), we become the percentage of the community that takes security issues very seriously.

But is that really true?

I recently asked myself that question.

Well, in my case, I put everything aside - my phone, computer, smart watch and looked at what I would do if I had to start from scratch. Having nothing, I would restore everything to the way it was and access to everything that is important to me.

And so I listed 10 services that are critical to me and from which I would start restoring.

The two basic services that I would need to regain access to are my phone number and email address.

And here I asked myself what my backup plan is.

Starting with the email, assuming I know the password, without having access to my phone number and the phone itself, there is no need to ask for an SMS password, a code from the authenticator or confirmation in the application that it is us. And so the first difficulties begin.

I remembered at the same time that Gmail (because that is where I have my primary email), in the security options, when I turned on two-step verification, asked me to generate security passwords in case of such a situation. And here is the first question, what did I do with them?

Well, Google, it asks to save or print the passwords. So I saved them…

I saved the passwords in (sic!) my password manager, which I don’t have access to. I need the email and password. Additionally, a good password manager also requires two-step verification. Now, standing empty-handed, we have nothing. We locked the security passwords that would allow us to regain access to the email in a safe that we don’t have access to.

It’s like locking your car with the keys inside, except in this case there’s no way to break the window as a last resort.

A simple example shows that my security plan has fallen apart. That is why it is important to think about where we save passwords, and what is even more important, how we will gain access to them. Here, seemingly old-fashioned methods will prove to be the best. Writing down passwords in a safe place or printing them out and hiding them somewhere safe for a rainy day turns out to be a better, although, it would seem, not the safest solution.

Printed security passwords, hidden somewhere deep in the closet, in the attic, in a bank vault, with family, become the key to everything.

Without access to passwords and a phone number to receive an SMS with a code, you try other methods, i.e. an alternative email address provided for just such an emergency situation. And the funniest thing is that the emergency email you provided is secured in the same way as the main email. And so once again, without a physically saved or printed security code, our elaborate plan fell apart.

You start thinking further. Phone number.

Well, you can ask the operator to issue a replacement card with our number and block the old one. Thanks to this, you can, within a few hours to days, recover one key element to restore access to your email.

In my case, when I use GiffGaff, I can transfer my number from the old card (which I could lose access to if I lost my phone) to a new card (a spare one that I always have somewhere to hand) without unnecessary fuss. All I have to do is log in to my account and start the appropriate process.

Ha!

If I can remember the username, taking care of my security, I will generate a “safe” password, which I have saved in the password manager, to which I do not have access yet. And here I have another example of how my security plan is falling apart. And it is enough, together with the passwords for e-mail, to write it down, so that in an emergency I have access to it.

Who would have thought that the old-fashioned, dangerous method of writing down passwords on a piece of paper would be the key to regaining control over our data.

Of course, this is not about creating a notebook entitled Passwords, hidden in the first drawer at home. Here, a bit of finesse and thought is needed. Using a simple cipher in our notes can help with this. The only problem may be our memory, but we have little influence over that.

And so it may seem that “only e-mail” and “only phone number” are nothing important, but starting from them, we can regain access to our money - bank; memories - photos or public information, i.e. social media.

I mentioned earlier that I personally prepared a list of 10 services that are critical to me and that I would need emergency access to if I had to start from scratch. Therefore, so that my awareness of the threat and the use of “advanced” security tools do not cause my emergency plan to fall apart the first time I try to run it, it is worth thinking the whole situation over from the beginning. Personally, I have prepared a piece of paper that will be my emergency plan in the event of my digital catastrophe.

Of course, you can think of additional ways to avoid being blocked by the sophisticated security systems that were supposed to protect us. One way is to add additional phone numbers, email addresses of people we can trust and who, when we are in need, will lend a helping hand.

Like everything, our emergency plan is unique. There is no way to do it right or wrong, one way or another. What is important is that one day, when we sit in an empty room, without access to everything we had every day and think about how to start everything over, or rather, how to restore everything to the way it was, start acting and so that our plan works to our advantage.

Best regards