IT DOES HAPPEN! I lost my ATT account by a screw up in passwords! AND forgetting my security question answers! (I never had to use them so why remember them!) :) I had tried so many times to access my account that it locked me out. I couldn't get my password because I had forgotten my SQA. ATT customer service said they had no way to break into the account! I had to create a whole new account with the dozens of people I had business with. And I was in my home computer room the whole time, not even in the jungles of Africa! (original cause of problem was a hardware fail of the main C drive. And my backup would not load! UGH! )
This topic is near and dear to me, as I am single, live alone, and I travel (backpack) all over the world for months at a time - several times a year. What if I get mugged and lose my backpack, phone and wallet (all entirely possible)? I memorize one phone number (family member) - so they can wire cash to me almost anywhere in the world). I guess my first step is to convince the hotel owner to let me use their phone, and to stay and dine for 1-3 days without payment until funds arrived. I also memorize one 'travel emergency' Google account/email (this account has no phone, email or 2FA linkages) - the "secret cache". This email contains just one item: a one-page checklist of what I need to do and in what order - no specific account/password info, except for the password and OTC to my main Google account (but not the account name itself). With the above, I will be able to buy a replacement Android phone, log in and recover/set up 'everything' again - then follow the rest of the checklist (cancel/replace cards, passport, etc.).
6:15 I could encrypt my checklist mentioned above, but my paranoia is that my new store-bought replacement phone likely won't have decryption app built in?! And without the list, I won't be able to access my Google account to restore my phone.
Make your password vault's password unguessable and reconstructable. For example, take a SHA-1 hash of an easily remembered word, which will give you a very strong 40 character hexadecimal string. Make some custom changes, like taking some characters off of the beginning or end, capitalize the first or last A through F, or all the A's, add some punctuation, whatever so long as you can remember what you did. Once you're in your password vault, things get a lot easier.
Thanks for the reminder to "have a recovery plan". For those who use a password manager, what is your thought on how (if at all) secure it is to put the password database (encrypted, of course) on a cloud server somewhere? I'd kind of like to do that because it could sync between PC, mobile devices, etc. To be compromised, a malicious actor would have to first get access to the cloud account, then know that there is a password database somewhere in that account, then have to brute-force decrypt that database. (Recently I couldn't buy movie tickets online because I didn't remember my account password and didn't have the password manager (or database file) on my phone. Have you any thoughts about the safety of keeping that database on your phone, or on a cloud service? Thanks.
You won't lose the clothes you are wearing, so keep a flash drive hidden in the lining. Carry your recovery codes on a piece of paper hidden on your person. Your recovery information should never be kept on your devices.
Back up your phone to the cloud or your computer just before the trip. When you lose everything, call a friend and give them you old phone's PW. Ask them to (1) buy you a new phone from your carrier, (2) go to your house (or your Apple account) and restore your old phone info to the new phone, (3) use Find My to disable your old phone, (4) expedite-mail the new phone to you. Your new phone has your PW manager on it, as well as access to your OneDrive (or whatever) where you have copies of your passport, etc., so once you have the new phone, you have everything you need. The thing I left out is getting your carrier to put your old phone # on the new phone; I'm not sure how that would work. I probably left out some other things, but that's the general idea, if you have 3 days.
Thank you for this reminder. I am shopping for a backup phone and I need to review the procedure for transferring my number to the phone. Before TFA all I needed was my email password and online storage password.
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IT DOES HAPPEN! I lost my ATT account by a screw up in passwords! AND forgetting my security question answers! (I never had to use them so why remember them!) :) I had tried so many times to access my account that it locked me out. I couldn't get my password because I had forgotten my SQA. ATT customer service said they had no way to break into the account! I had to create a whole new account with the dozens of people I had business with. And I was in my home computer room the whole time, not even in the jungles of Africa! (original cause of problem was a hardware fail of the main C drive. And my backup would not load! UGH! )
This topic is near and dear to me, as I am single, live alone, and I travel (backpack) all over the world for months at a time - several times a year. What if I get mugged and lose my backpack, phone and wallet (all entirely possible)?
I memorize one phone number (family member) - so they can wire cash to me almost anywhere in the world). I guess my first step is to convince the hotel owner to let me use their phone, and to stay and dine for 1-3 days without payment until funds arrived.
I also memorize one 'travel emergency' Google account/email (this account has no phone, email or 2FA linkages) - the "secret cache". This email contains just one item: a one-page checklist of what I need to do and in what order - no specific account/password info, except for the password and OTC to my main Google account (but not the account name itself).
With the above, I will be able to buy a replacement Android phone, log in and recover/set up 'everything' again - then follow the rest of the checklist (cancel/replace cards, passport, etc.).
6:15 I could encrypt my checklist mentioned above, but my paranoia is that my new store-bought replacement phone likely won't have decryption app built in?! And without the list, I won't be able to access my Google account to restore my phone.
Make your password vault's password unguessable and reconstructable. For example, take a SHA-1 hash of an easily remembered word, which will give you a very strong 40 character hexadecimal string. Make some custom changes, like taking some characters off of the beginning or end, capitalize the first or last A through F, or all the A's, add some punctuation, whatever so long as you can remember what you did. Once you're in your password vault, things get a lot easier.
Thanks for the reminder to "have a recovery plan". For those who use a password manager, what is your thought on how (if at all) secure it is to put the password database (encrypted, of course) on a cloud server somewhere? I'd kind of like to do that because it could sync between PC, mobile devices, etc. To be compromised, a malicious actor would have to first get access to the cloud account, then know that there is a password database somewhere in that account, then have to brute-force decrypt that database. (Recently I couldn't buy movie tickets online because I didn't remember my account password and didn't have the password manager (or database file) on my phone. Have you any thoughts about the safety of keeping that database on your phone, or on a cloud service? Thanks.
You won't lose the clothes you are wearing, so keep a flash drive hidden in the lining. Carry your recovery codes on a piece of paper hidden on your person. Your recovery information should never be kept on your devices.
Back up your phone to the cloud or your computer just before the trip. When you lose everything, call a friend and give them you old phone's PW. Ask them to (1) buy you a new phone from your carrier, (2) go to your house (or your Apple account) and restore your old phone info to the new phone, (3) use Find My to disable your old phone, (4) expedite-mail the new phone to you. Your new phone has your PW manager on it, as well as access to your OneDrive (or whatever) where you have copies of your passport, etc., so once you have the new phone, you have everything you need. The thing I left out is getting your carrier to put your old phone # on the new phone; I'm not sure how that would work. I probably left out some other things, but that's the general idea, if you have 3 days.
Thank you for this reminder. I am shopping for a backup phone and I need to review the procedure for transferring my number to the phone. Before TFA all I needed was my email password and online storage password.
Password protected Word file sent to a friend or family with their phone number as a recovery for your most important account is what I would do