Data Portability and Security for SHTF?

[Jackson]

One area I haven't given enough thought and prep is what to do with personal data in a SHTF scenario. I guess I'm thinking of things like property records, titles,details on financial accounts, insurance policies, and probably other things I'm forgetting.

I think I'm looking at two problems. The first is how should I be backing this stuff up and storing it in the case my home is gone or I can't go there? Also, how can I securely transport it if I leave. Maybe also how to secure what's left at home if I'm not there.

My initial thought is a ruggedized, encrypted USB drive. (Open to suggestions here.)

My second thought is the secure, encrypted folder on my phone. It's always with me and easy to access as long as it works.

So, my question for the group is: How do you backup and secure important documents? What specifically do you keep? What file format(s) do you use? Is PDF the best, or some standard photo format?

What about hard copies at home? Any use for a safe deposit box at a bank?

I'm looking for ideas.

 

[rhino]

One area I haven't given enough thought and prep is what to do with personal data in a SHTF scenario. I guess I'm thinking of things like property records, titles,details on financial accounts, insurance policies, and probably other things I'm forgetting.

I think I'm looking at two problems. The first is how should I be backing this stuff up and storing it in the case my home is gone or I can't go there? Also, how can I securely transport it if I leave. Maybe also how to secure what's left at home if I'm not there.

My initial thought is a ruggedized, encrypted USB drive. (Open to suggestions here.)

My second thought is the secure, encrypted folder on my phone. It's always with me and easy to access as long as it works.

So, my question for the group is: How do you backup and secure important documents? What specifically do you keep? What file format(s) do you use? Is PDF the best, or some standard photo format?

What about hard copies at home? Any use for a safe deposit box at a bank?

I'm looking for ideas.

If it's critically important data, there is something more important than how you choose to store it: redundancy. No matter what media you choose, you need multiple secure copies. Anything can fail at any time. It's unlikely that multiple backups will all fail at the same time.

I keep backups of everything important on a pair of USB flash drives. , One accidentally took a dip in water for a about 20 seconds, but I wasn't excited because I had a duplicate. When the wet drive was thoroughly dry, it still worked fine (don't try to use them when they are still damp!), but I got a new drive to replace it just in case.

For some things, you probably need paper copies stored securely as well (such in a vault).

 

[JeepHammer]

Something I found out during the 'Housing Collapse' (Land Grab),
A friend had foreclosure started against him, even though he was in the last 5 years of his mortgage and was current...

The ORIGINALS are the only LEGAL documents, photo copies and digital copies aren't legal documents.

Now, it's not hopeless for your deed,
The courthouse can provide you with 'Originals', as many as you need (for about $5-$10 each for the courthouse stamp & notorized seal).
These are 'Originals' in courts... PROVIDING the First ORIGINAL can't be produced.
(I know, original, first original, etc., It's all legal-eeze.)

What we found was the courthouse regestered 'Original' and had that copied & certified making it a legal 'Original'.
There was a record of mortgage from the local bank he financed through, but none of the subsequent 12 mortgage sales recorded at the courthouse, so the first mortgage was the legally binding contract...
That bank had been bought out and out of business for 12 years.
Between canceled checks & paperwork trail, he kept his home, in the first go around, the very first judge he saw gave him clear title & deed.

None but the certified 'Copies', once certified they are 'Second Original', and are legal in a court of law is the point.

As for storage, NO OXYGEN!
Use acid absorbing paper between pages (all modern paper has acid issues, and the 'art paper separators' are cheap).
Heavy wall PVC tubing with Argon gas (any MIG welder) floods the tube displacing oxygen, the seal it up.
If I used oxygen absorbers, I would make sure they didn't contact documents directly. Some of those absorbers can damage paper.

Don't use CO2! Temp changes will cause CO2 to wet the documents.

 

[JeepHammer]

Life insurance, etc should give you copies, but you should probably have your own 'Signature Sheet', a wet signature sheet.

These can be copied & notorized. Keep in mind you will probably need to have every page notorized, but that's just a price you pay for 'Legal' copies.

 

[BigBoxaJunk]

My main thing at work has been to develop a paperless system for my team. We've been totally paperless for about five years now.

It's funny that I'm only now getting to the point of total paperless-ness at home (other than the obvious important paper things). I've been mostly paperless, and I only write one check per month, for the sewage, since they don't have an online bill pay (and I like dropping off the check and saying Hi to the ladies there), but I'm only just now getting to scanning the last of the older papers that I probably don't need, but am keeping anyway. It's funny how I used to worry about file types to maximize storage back in the day, and now I don't even worry about space.

Rino is right as far as data storage, redundancy is the key. I also am using the newer, high capacity flash drives, supplemented with two remote hard-drives, and I still burn a copy of my "Virtual file cabinet" on DVD a couple of times a year. I'm able to keep one copy of my files at another residence, and I swap them every so often.

The one thing I'm changing up these days is going with synced folders instead of Windows back-ups. That way, what you have on your back-up is actual files and not compressed files.

 

[dudley0]

I have photo copies of all the more important stuff in a small fire safe that is placed inside a bigger fire safe. I also have a flash drive with all the copies in jpg or pdf.

Off site has another flash drive, even though I need to add to the files on it. It is with a small cache of clothes, food, ammo, firearms, med supplies and the like.

Actually now that this has been brought up, I need to get those files updated. Slipped my mind and has probably been two years since I did that there.

I also email stuff to myself to have another copy available.

 

[INGarand]

What good are records like property records, titles, details of financial accounts insurance, etc. good for in a SHTF scenario? Seem like only sort term problems resulting in a return to norm would need backup of records. Data files and hard copies would be fine. Food, water and ammo if priority.

 

[Cameramonkey]

Yeah, dont think things cant fail even if redundant.

I had a customer many moons ago suffer 2 drive failures within 24 hours.

Got an alert that his RAID5 array lost a disk. No biggie. With RAID5 if you lose one disk you are OK. Replace the bad disk and it will rebuild the missing data off the other two with no loss. I scheduled a visit the next day.

WHILE I WAS ON THE PHONE WITH DELL no less, I heard a weird noise and the server froze and became unresponsive. Next thing I see is I now have TWO drives with error lights.

Now granted these were spinning disks. I doubt highly that we really have to worry about flash drives failing that close together. Especially if they are not from the same batch. (the drives' serial numbers in the story above were just a few apart)

I'll second the multiple copies of flash drives. Traditional portable hard drives if you must. I'd also store them in a metal box. An Altoids tin might be perfect for flash drives. In the rare event of something crazy like an EMP burst, that $1 tin could make the difference. (and a tasty prep, too!)

I have a couple backup flash drives in one of those tins. Granted it was originally because it was "free", handy, and just the right size. But it sure doesnt hurt anything.

EDIT: and in a true SHTF situation where "originals" stored by .gov are also destroyed, you would think that the rules would change and electronic copies considered. But I pray to God we never need to test that theory.

 

[bwframe]

Nobody mentioning the cloud?

 

[Cameramonkey]

Nobody mentioning the cloud?

You mean the first thing to go down if the SHTF? It would be good for a secondary or tertiary location for ease.

But for true protections, you want offline storage. (not as in "not out on the interwebs" but as "not readily available") Online storage/backups can be corrupted/deleted/encrypted by ransomware. It cant be destroyed if it aint plugged in.