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Protecting Secrets from Computers (2023)

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Re: Protecting Secrets from Computers (2023)

#12
My biggest challenge as I’m getting older is remembering my long secret key.

Even with a password manager that requires me to remember only a few passphrases (personal and work being two), there is a non zero chance now that a fall and a concussion would lock me out of my password manager.

Anyone else have a solution or a suggestion for this problem?

Re: Protecting Secrets from Computers (2023)

#13

My biggest challenge as I’m getting older is remembering my long secret key. Even with a password manager that requires me to remember only a few passphrases (personal and work being two), there is a non zero chance now that a fall and a concussion would lock me out of my password manager. Anyone else have a solution or a suggestion for this problem?

Write it down on a piece of paper.

Re: Protecting Secrets from Computers (2023)

#14

My biggest challenge as I’m getting older is remembering my long secret key. Even with a password manager that requires me to remember only a few passphrases (personal and work being two), there is a non zero chance now that a fall and a concussion would lock me out of my password manager. Anyone else have a solution or a suggestion for this problem?

Wear a helmet and hip pads, but failing that split the password in half (as in literally the first half and the second half, don't try to get fancy with crypto) and give the halves to two people unlikely to collude. Your computer will no longer have 5th amendment protection, though.

Re: Protecting Secrets from Computers (2023)

#15

My biggest challenge as I’m getting older is remembering my long secret key. Even with a password manager that requires me to remember only a few passphrases (personal and work being two), there is a non zero chance now that a fall and a concussion would lock me out of my password manager. Anyone else have a solution or a suggestion for this problem?

You could try Entropy Keycrypt -> https://entropykey.com/features

Re: Protecting Secrets from Computers (2023)

#18
post #14

My biggest challenge as I’m getting older is remembering my long secret key. Even with a password manager that requires me to remember only a few passphrases (personal and work being two), there is a non zero chance now that a fall and a concussion would lock me out of my password manager. Anyone else have a solution or a suggestion for this problem?

Wear a helmet and hip pads, but failing that split the password in half (as in literally the first half and the second half, don't try to get fancy with crypto) and give the halves to two people unlikely to collude. Your computer will no longer have 5th amendment protection, though.

Or better, use `Shamir's Secret Sharing`

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shamir%27s_secret_sharing

Re: Protecting Secrets from Computers (2023)

#19

My biggest challenge as I’m getting older is remembering my long secret key. Even with a password manager that requires me to remember only a few passphrases (personal and work being two), there is a non zero chance now that a fall and a concussion would lock me out of my password manager. Anyone else have a solution or a suggestion for this problem?

Biometrics?

Re: Protecting Secrets from Computers (2023)

#20
What about reducing our usage of the Internet and using local resources instead? Personally I have local mirrors of various code repositories, and thousands of ebooks. If you want to nearly eliminate all surveillance, then you can air-gap your computer?

So we shift back from the collective (networked) systems to a more individualistic local information store? We already have local AI models, which is a step in the right direction.

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