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Show HN: If you lose your memory, how to regain access to your computer?

eljojo.github.io

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Re: Show HN: If you lose your memory, how to regain access to your computer?

#31

Post by saltcured »

registeredcorn wrote: post #11

I explicitly make it so I cannot regain access to my computer in the event that my memory becomes faulty. I would be in an impaired state, and cannot function in way that would be conducive to either work or pleasure in terms of computer use. That is to say, the entire reason why I have password security at all is to keep out people who do not know the password. If someone does not know the password, they should not…

I agree in broad strokes. If I am incapacitated, that is when things like durable power-of-attorney, medical advance directives, and living trusts come into play.

The important thing is to ensuring your computer is not a single point of failure. Instead of losing a password, you could have theft, flood, fire, etc. Or for online accounts, you are one vendor move away from losing things. None of these should be precious and impossible to replace. I've been on the other side of this, and I think the better flow is to terminate or transfer accounts, and wipe and recycle personal devices.

A better use of your time is to set up a disaster-recovery plan you can write down and share with people you trust. Distribute copies of important data to make a resilient archive. This could include confidential records, but shouldn't really need to include authentication "secrets".

Don't expect others to "impersonate" you. Delegate them proper access via technical and/or legal methods, as appropriate. Get some basic legal advice and put your affairs in order. Write down instructions for your wishes and the "treasure map" to help your survivors or caregivers figure out how to use the properly delegated authority.

Re: Show HN: If you lose your memory, how to regain access to your computer?

#32

Post by eljojo »

econ wrote: post #29

I like it. Perhaps you can use a weird idea of mine. You can discard/modify part of a password before sending it to your backend. Then, when you log in the server has to brute force the missing part. One could extend this with security questions like how many children pets and cars you own. What color was your car in 2024. Use that data to aid brute forcing. The goal would be to be able to decrypt with fewer than 5 s…

ohhhh that's brutal haha! for context my app runs entirely clientside, but I get it, it's an interesting idea...

Re: Show HN: If you lose your memory, how to regain access to your computer?

#33

Post by eljojo »

nippoo wrote: post #16

This kind of thing, widely implemented, would be a game-changer for dealing with assets after someone's death! I maintain my family's IT infrastructure (Google Enterprise admin, webserver etc) and I've been tempted to write down 1/4 of my password manager root password and give it to each of my family members - but then we run into the problem where if any one of them loses their shard, it's unrecoverable. Some kind…

yes! I am starting to do some planning on that myself, that's why I'm in that kind of mindset. If you know more people in this space, please share this with them! would love to get feedback

Re: Show HN: If you lose your memory, how to regain access to your computer?

#34

Post by eljojo »

moltymolt wrote: post #2

That's an interesting idea. It's a good solution to the problem of sharing all your passwords with your loved ones posthumously. Typically that'd involve keeping everything in a vault which will automatically be released to your person of choice if you failed to reset it. The annoying part is having to reset it indefinitely. I like your idea where you share it with multiple people in advance but they would have to co…

exactly! my hope is to offload some trust to the collective of my friends

Re: Show HN: If you lose your memory, how to regain access to your computer?

#35

Post by 0cf8612b2e1e »

kylehotchkiss wrote: post #30
maurycyz wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This. A physical safe provides something that you can't do digitally: It's hard, but not impossible to get in without credentials. On the internet, it's either: Public for anyone in the whole world, or impossible to recover if anything goes wrong.

I've broken into Physical Safes using nothing more than a drill with a half inch bit (I was young and didn't want to drag myself to harbor freight to sacrifice a more suitable tool). Enough boreholes and I had access. In hindsight, looking harder for the key would probably have been fruitful.

Nothing says you cannot trivially encode the paper password. Those in the know understand that you need to append “BoomShakalaka”, replace “A” with “Q”, or some other super simple modification to what is recorded.

Maybe the NSA would be willing to brute force the infinite variations from that starting seed, but it is still effectively locked for mortals.

Re: Show HN: If you lose your memory, how to regain access to your computer?

#37

Post by eljojo »

catlifeonmars wrote: post #15
registeredcorn wrote: post #11

I explicitly make it so I cannot regain access to my computer in the event that my memory becomes faulty. I would be in an impaired state, and cannot function in way that would be conducive to either work or pleasure in terms of computer use. That is to say, the entire reason why I have password security at all is to keep out people who do not know the password. If someone does not know the password, they should not…

What if you forgot your password but retained all other memories?

asking the real questions here

Re: Show HN: If you lose your memory, how to regain access to your computer?

#39

Post by tencentshill »

lucenet wrote: post #12
ericbarrett wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also had old Google backup codes fail a few years ago. Anybody who hasn't regenerated them in a year or two, I recommend you do so.

Well, this is disturbing news.

Make Google Takeouts a part of your backup routine.
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