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Emergency Kit Storage

sungoku7777
sungoku7777
Community Member

Hello, this is more of a question for ideas from people. Where do you guys keep your emergency kit? We don't have a safe but are considering getting one. I was planning on password protecting the PDF and placing it on my USB and a printed copy with our important documents (again not in a safe). Another idea I had was using a different password manager (a free version) and storing it in there. Or is that cray-cray? Thanks!


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Comments

  • danco
    danco
    Volunteer Moderator

    Do you have a will? (If not, you should.) If so, where is it kept. A copy of the Emergency Kit should definitely be kept with your will or with anyone who has a power of attorney to deal with health emergencies.

    It also depends on whether you have kept your Master Password in the Emergency Kit. I reckon it is for most of us acceptably safe to keep your login address and Secret Key in some encrypted form.

  • AGAlumB
    AGAlumB
    1Password Alumni

    Safe deposit box. That way whomever you will your stuff to can get it, along with probably a lot of other important documents. Personally, not crazy about the USB thing. It's not a bad idea, but if the electronics fail that will be it -- and I've had 3 USB drives go on me this year. And using some other means to digitally secure it seems to me to just kick the problem forward a bit, since they'd then need a password to access that, and maybe you'd need to put that password with the will (or accessible by it). I think it may be best to "cut out the middle man". Just my two cents. :)

  • danco
    danco
    Volunteer Moderator

    Safe deposit box is often recommended, and seems like a good idea.

    However, I wonder how widespread they are in different countries. In the UK I have never heard of anyone (other than wealthy people with loads of jewellery) having a safe deposit box. Certainly, though fairly competent in financial matters, I haven't the slightest idea how to get one.

  • They aren’t super common in the US either, but I believe that is typically because folks feel they don’t have things that would be worth storing there. Small fire safes in the home are fairly prevalent though, and can perhaps also serve the purpose.

    I actually don’t have a bank safe deposit box myself so I couldn’t speak to the process but I imagine you could start by speaking with a teller at your local branch.

    Ben

  • jipnet
    jipnet
    Community Member
    edited November 2018

    How safe or unsafe would it be to store the emergency kit in 1Password itself? I'd like it to be digitally available if at all possible. I would have thought it is as safe as 1password is; and that if someone breaks into the app or its contents they might as well have the emergency kit too (it won't matter by then).

  • @jipnet

    You can certainly store the Emergency Kit in 1Password as a backup, but it absolutely should not be the only place you store it as that would entirely defeat the purpose. :)

    Ben

  • jipnet
    jipnet
    Community Member

    How safe or unsafe would it be to store the emergency kit in 1Password itself?

  • jipnet
    jipnet
    Community Member

    Thanks, Ben. So the main purpose is not only for the main user but for non-owners of the app who might need access to the Emergency Kit? But in that case what they would need is the password for the app. Why would a user need this document? To recall the main password if they forget it for whatever reason? ie password recovery? I'm not entirely sure of the purpose; also not sure why in the directions on the web provided by Agilebits, there is no mention of keeping it in the app itself, only this:

    "Keep a copy on a USB drive to make sure a digital copy is outside of the devices you use with 1Password"

    Even all these measures can be self-defeating: you can lose the paper copy; forget where you put it (I surely will); lose the thumb drive; etc. Maybe multiplying the copies assures that at least one will be found? But why not keep it stored on your own hard drive where it can always be found?

  • danco
    danco
    Volunteer Moderator

    It depends a bit. Your Secret Key is on your computer, so anyone using the computer only needs the password.

    But you yourself might need to set up 1PW on a different computer, for instance if your current computer suffers a major failure, and your executors or carers might also want to use another machine. For that, they would need the secret key, so the Emergency Kit should be available to them.

  • AGAlumB
    AGAlumB
    1Password Alumni

    Storing the Emergency Kit in 1Password would not be unsafe, as the account credentials would need to be used to gain access to it anyway. But I'm not sure there's much of a benefit to storing it there either. In order to get to it, you'd generally already need to know the Master Password, and the Secret Key would be accessible in the app's settings anyway. One exception though would be biometrics: if you forgot your Master Password, you could potentially use Touch ID or something similar to get in to get your account credentials. So on that count it could be useful. Keeping it on a hard drive would only be a good idea if the whole drive is encrypted using a strong password only you know...and then you'd have another thing to remember/forget too. Ultimately we each need to plan according to what works best for us.

  • Ben
    Ben
    edited November 2018

    To add to / reiterate what brenty and danco said basically I would suggest asking yourself the question: “Will I be able to log in to my 1Password account if my computer is lost/stolen/broken?”
    That is the primary purpose of the Emergency Kit. If one or multiple of your devices are unavailable for whatever reason how are you going to get your Secret Key and other credentials in order to access 1Password from a new/different device?

    Whatever system you come up with should account for that possibility. Storing the Emergency Kit only in 1Password and/or only on the hard drive of your primary device is likely self defeating. How are you going to get into 1Password in order to obtain the Emergency Kit? What if that primary device dies?

    Ben

This discussion has been closed.