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Technology
How to ensure your passwords don’t die with you
As technology becomes more integrated into our lives, we need to consider how it affects our legacy and our loved ones. There are some uncomfortable but necessary end-of-life conversations we should all have with our loved ones, but passwords usually aren’t one of them.
Yet with so much of our professional, personal and financial life online, it is more important now to include how to handle your digital life in those conversations.
That’s what Ashley is tackling right now as it relates to her husband, and this is the question she has for us.
“My spouse still writes his passwords down so I can access them in case of his death. I’m reading today about password managers and thinking we should do that, but if one of us passes, can the other access it? Thank you. What other ways can we prep for an unexpected death?” — Ashley, Fairhope, AL
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A couple discussing digital life (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)
This is not an easy topic to discuss, but it is a necessary one. Having access to necessary accounts can be one less hurdle to face should you bear the loss of a loved one. While it may not be the most joyful conversation to have, we’re really glad you brought this issue up, Ashley.
Figuring out a strategy for what happens to your passwords can be helpful not just when someone passes, but also if you’re unable to access your accounts because of medical procedures or long-term travel. Below are several strategies to continue to protect your information while sharing it effectively and safely.
MORE: THE VERY WORST AND WEAKEST PASSWORDS OF 2023
How to use password managers to plan for death and emergencies
Password managers are useful tools that generate and store unique passwords for your online accounts, making them more secure than using the same password or writing them down. They also have features that allow you to share your passwords with trusted people in case of an emergency or death.
You can choose who will inherit your password manager account and what passwords they can access. You can also set temporary access for situations like medical procedures or travel, which will expire after a certain time. This way, you can ensure that your digital assets are protected and accessible by the right people.
AI CAN GUESS YOUR PASSWORD WITH UNPRECEDENTED ACCURACY BY ‘LISTENING’ TO KEYSTROKES
Note: Having access to someone’s banking account login and passwords is not the same thing as having the right to access another person’s money. You would need to get in touch with the financial institution and follow the appropriate protocol for handling any transfers and account terminations. Often, one would need to be listed as a joint account holder or beneficiary of the account.
ARE YOUR PASSWORDS SAFE?
When creating passwords, come up with strong and unique ones
It’s always a good reminder to create strong passwords for your accounts and devices and avoid using the same password for multiple online accounts. A password manager will securely store and generate complex passwords. It will help you to create unique and difficult-to-crack passwords that a hacker could never guess.
Second, it also keeps track of all your passwords in one place and fills passwords in for you when you’re logging into an account so that you never have to remember them yourself. The fewer passwords you remember, the less likely you will be to reuse them for your accounts.
What qualities should I look for in a password manager?
When it comes to choosing the best password manager for you, here are some of my top tips.
- Deploys secure
- Works seamlessly across all of your devices
- Creates unique complicated passwords that are different for every account
- Automatically populates login and password fields for apps and sites you revisit
- Has a browser extension for all browsers you use to automatically insert passwords for you
- Allows a fail-safe in case the primary password is ever lost or forgotten
- Checks that your existing passwords remain safe and alerts you if ever compromised
- Uses two-factor authentication security
Get more details about my best expert-reviewed password managers with digital inheritance features of 2024.
Samsung device showing login screen (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)
Create a digital inheritance plan with password managers and other tools
In addition to utilizing a password manager for everyday life as well as in case of emergency, there is something to be said about creating a concrete digital inheritance plan. If you’re using a password manager, you should discuss and leave clear instructions on how to gain access to the account, as there are many fail-safe measures in place that would make gaining access to the account after passing challenging.
Regardless of whether you are using a third-party service or not, you should leave a specific outline of what to do with your online accounts and digital assets like photos and videos, in the event of your passing.
MORE: HOW TO UNLOCK AN ANDROID AND WINDOWS PC WHEN THE OWNER PASSES AWAY
How to memorialize or delete your social media accounts when you’re gone
In the setting section of most social media accounts, you have the option to select memorialization. If you use Meta to manage your Instagram and Facebook accounts, you can find it under Account Ownership and Control. You can choose a person to manage your memorialized profile or permanently delete your profile after you pass.
Facebook account login (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)
MORE: HOW TO BE REMEMBERED FOREVER ON FACEBOOK
Kurt’s key takeaways
Password managers can make this lifetime and the life of those you leave behind much easier by providing a way to easily transfer access to important online accounts to your trusted contacts. It’s uncomfortable for most to begin, but surprisingly easy once you’re prepared. Having clear and detailed discussions, as well as leaving written instructions of how you’d like your digital life to be handled in the worst-case scenario, will give you and your family the peace of mind everyone deserves.
How do you plan to handle your digital life after death? Have you considered using a password manager or other tools to share your passwords and online accounts with your loved ones? Let us know by writing us at Cyberguy.com/Contact
For more of my tech tips and security alerts, subscribe to my free CyberGuy Report Newsletter by heading to Cyberguy.com/Newsletter
Ask Kurt a question or let us know what stories you’d like us to cover
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Copyright 2024 CyberGuy.com. All rights reserved.
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Millions of Americans are digging into their roots. Genealogy has quietly become one of the fastest-growing hobbies in North America, with the industry now valued at more than $5 billion. From DNA kits to digital family tree builders, people are discovering relatives, tracing migration stories and reconnecting with their past.
There is something deeply meaningful about learning where you come from. However, there is another side to this trend that many people never consider.
The same information that helps you find your great-grandparents can also help scammers find you. Once personal details appear online, they rarely stay in one place. And that can create unexpected security risks.
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DNA KITS MAY SHARE PERSONAL DATA AFTER DEATH
A woman looks at the contents of a 23andMe DNA testing kit in Oakland, California, on June 8, 2018. Millions of Americans using family tree platforms may be unknowingly sharing sensitive details like maiden names and birthplaces online. (Cayce Clifford/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
What family tree sites encourage you to upload
Genealogy platforms feel harmless. In fact, they are designed to feel warm, nostalgic and personal.
To build a detailed family tree, users often upload information such as:
- Full legal names, including maiden names
- Birth dates
- Places of birth
- Marriage records
- Address history
- Names of children, siblings and relatives
- Old family photos
- Obituaries and memorial information
Each detail may seem harmless on its own. But together, they create something extremely valuable: a fully mapped identity profile. Not just of you, but of your entire family network. And that kind of information is exactly what scammers look for.
Once information is uploaded, it rarely stays private
Many genealogy platforms allow public trees by default. Even when accounts are private, information can still spread in several ways.
For example, data can appear through:
- Shared family trees
- Public obituaries
- Search features
- Data scraping tools
- Third-party integrations
Over time, this information becomes searchable. It may be indexed by search engines. Bots can scrape it. Data brokers can absorb it into their databases. Once that happens, your family details no longer live only on a genealogy website. They can appear on people search websites, background check platforms and marketing databases. And you may never know it happened.
The 23andMe wake-up call
The recent bankruptcy of the DNA testing company 23andMe served as a reminder for millions of users. When companies change ownership or shut down, your data does not simply disappear. Genetic data raises serious privacy concerns on its own.
However, the broader genealogy ecosystem carries a similar risk. When you upload deeply personal, multi-generational information, you lose control over how long it is stored, who can access it and where it may end up in the future. Even if you trust a company today, you cannot control what happens tomorrow.
23ANDME PROBE LAUNCHED TO PREVENT CUSTOMER DNA DATA FROM BEING SOLD TO CHINA OR OTHER BAD ACTORS
A woman collects a DNA sample in Oakland, California, on June 8, 2018. Personal data uploaded to genealogy sites can spread across data broker networks, making it difficult to control where information appears. (Cayce Clifford/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Why scammers love family tree data
Cybercriminals no longer focus only on credit card numbers. Instead, they want context. They want personal details that help them impersonate you or bypass security checks. Family tree websites provide exactly that. Here are three ways criminals can exploit genealogy data.
1) Answering security questions
Many financial institutions still rely on knowledge-based authentication questions, such as:
Unfortunately, those answers often appear directly in public family trees. With enough background information, scammers may bypass account protections without ever knowing your password.
2) Crafting believable impersonation scams
Now imagine receiving a message like this: “Hi, Aunt Linda, it’s Jake. I’m stuck overseas and need help.”
If a scammer already knows:
- Your relatives’ names
- Who is related to whom
- Where family members live
They can create highly believable emergency scams. These are no longer random “grandparent scams.” They are customized attacks, and genealogy data makes that customization easy.
3) Targeting entire families
When one person’s information becomes exposed, it rarely stops there. A scammer can quickly map your entire family network. They may identify:
- Adult children
- Elderly parents
- Siblings
- Multiple addresses
Then they can launch phishing attempts across several family members at once. In other words, one data leak can turn into a family-wide vulnerability.
How genealogy data strengthens data broker profiles
Here is where the situation becomes even more concerning. Data brokers do not just collect phone numbers and addresses. They build detailed relational profiles.
These profiles often include:
- Household connections
- Extended relatives
- Age ranges
- Property ownership
- Income indicators
When genealogy data gets scraped or resold, it strengthens those profiles. Your listing may suddenly include:
- An accurate maiden name
- Verified birth year
- Confirmed past addresses
- Detailed family connections
The richer the profile becomes, the more valuable it is-not only to marketers but also to criminals. “But I set my tree to private.” Privacy settings certainly help. However, they do not solve the entire problem.
Even if your family tree is private:
- Relatives may publish overlapping information
- Obituaries remain public records
- Historical records continue to be digitized
- Other users may repost or copy data
Once information spreads across multiple websites, tracking it becomes extremely difficult. In addition, data brokers constantly refresh their databases. Even if you remove your data once, it may quietly reappear months later.
COULD HACKERS STEAL YOUR DNA AND SELL IT?
A technician works on a device that conducts direct-to-consumer genetic testing at the University of Tokyo’s Institute of Medical Science in Tokyo, Japan, on July 9, 2014. Genealogy websites may help you trace your roots, but experts warn they can also expose personal data that scammers use to target entire families. (Kiyoshi Ota/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
How to enjoy genealogy without exposing yourself
You do not have to give up genealogy. You simply need to approach it the same way you approach social media.
Consider these precautions:
- Limit public visibility on family trees
- Avoid posting full birthdates
- Be cautious with maiden names
- Remove exact address histories
- Think carefully before sharing details about living relatives
Most importantly, remember that the real risk is not the genealogy site itself. The risk is where that data travels next.
Stop your family history from becoming a scammer’s playbook
Once personal information enters the data broker ecosystem, it can spread far beyond the original platform. That is why proactive privacy protection matters.
Data brokers collect and resell personal information gathered from public records, websites and scraped databases. If genealogy details such as maiden names, birthplaces and family relationships get pulled into those systems, they can quietly appear across people-search sites and background check databases.
Over time, this information can make it easier for scammers to build detailed identity profiles. Those profiles can be used for impersonation scams, phishing attacks or attempts to bypass security questions.
You can take steps by searching your name and relatives online to see what information is publicly visible, submitting removal requests to people-search sites and limiting what you share publicly on genealogy platforms. Taking these precautions can help prevent your family history from becoming a roadmap for scammers.
However, manually tracking down and removing your information across hundreds of sites can be time-consuming and difficult to keep up with.
One of the most effective steps you can take is to use a data removal service to help remove your information from data broker and people-search websites. While no service can guarantee the complete removal of your data from the internet, a data removal service is really a smart choice.
These services do the work for you by actively monitoring and systematically erasing your personal information from hundreds of websites. They also continue scanning for new exposures, which helps prevent your data from quietly reappearing later.
It’s what gives me peace of mind and has proven to be one of the most effective ways to erase personal data from the internet. By limiting the information available, you reduce the risk of scammers cross-referencing breach data with details they might find online, making it much harder for them to target you.
Check out my top picks for data removal services and get a free scan to find out if your personal information is already out on the web by visiting Cyberguy.com.
Get a free scan to find out if your personal information is already out on the web: Cyberguy.com.
Kurt’s key takeaways
Genealogy can be an incredibly rewarding hobby. Discovering where your family came from often creates a deeper sense of connection and identity. But the digital tools that make this research easier can also expose more information than many people realize. A family tree filled with birthplaces, maiden names and relatives may look harmless, yet it can quietly create a roadmap for scammers. The good news is you do not have to stop exploring your ancestry. You simply need to share carefully, protect your data and understand how information travels online.
Have you ever searched for your own name or family members online and been surprised by how much personal information was publicly available? Let us know by writing to us at Cyberguy.com.
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Copyright 2026 CyberGuy.com. All rights reserved.
Do you have cool events to highlight, tips to toss over, and secrets to spill? Send everything to tina.nguyen+tips@theverge.com. Or, if you’re truly tech-pilled, send me a message on LinkedIn.
Surprisingly, artificial intelligence does not take the highest political priority during a war — much less an ill-conceived war with Iran that’s paralyzed the energy markets, destabilized America’s relationships with the Middle East and Europe, and alienated members of President Donald Trump’s diehard MAGA coalition. (Just yesterday, Joe Kent, election denier and onetime Trump-endorsed congressional candidate, announced that he was stepping down as the director of the National Counterterrorism Center in protest of the Iran war.) But the effect it’ll have on the tech and AI industry — and industry in general — is so dire that David Sacks, billionaire and the AI and crypto czar shaping the Trump administration’s tech policies, did something politically risky: He publicly suggested that Donald Trump find some way to get out of the Iran war.
Last Friday on his podcast All In, Sacks and his crew laid out several alarmingly realistic scenarios based on recent developments: Iran indicated it was willing to attack oil and gas depots in neighboring countries, destroy desalination plants crucial for supplying water to over 100 million people (which Sacks described as a “humanitarian crisis” that would render the Middle East uninhabitable), and bombard Israel until it either relented or decided to use a nuclear weapon. The Democrats would probably win the midterms. But also, and arguably worse, World War III was possible. “This would be a really good time to take stock of where we are and try, I think, to seek an off-ramp,” he told his co-hosts. “And look, if escalation doesn’t lead anywhere good, then you have to think about, well, how do you de-escalate? And de-escalation, I think, involves reaching some sort of ceasefire agreement or some sort of negotiated settlement with Iran.”
Whatever advice Sacks may have tried to offer has fallen on deaf ears. On top of the US military’s continued assault on Iranian oil infrastructure, over the past few days, Trump said he was open to putting US troops on the ground in Iran, said that NATO countries hesitant to support him were making a “foolish” decision, and just because, added that he was thinking of invading Cuba next. Trump also told reporters this week that Sacks had not spoken to him about the war, either. Whether that’s true or not, Trump often defaults to this explanation when trying to diminish a critic. And the sources I speak to around the White House — especially the ones familiar with Trump’s MO — are pessimistic that Sacks will have any shot at getting the president to listen to him.
A David Sacks hater may note that the billionaire has hit the boundaries of his perceived influence on Trump. At the same time, every single one of Trump’s former allies — especially the ones who don’t work for him — have hit that limit, too. The MAGA anti-war isolationists have been completely betrayed. The titans of industry who care about the markets are at the mercy of Trump’s whims. Heck, Trump has turned around and embraced the neoconservatives who used to despise him, but are now the only people on the right clamoring for regime change in Iran. (If you want to get a sense of how his administration underlings are enabling Trump, I was literally at the Pentagon last week for a vibe check.)
Out of the Trump oligarch classes, the technologists may suffer the longest term effects. Unlike the MAGA base, who’d supported Trump for intangible ideological reasons, Big Tech’s got a deeply financial incentive to stay allied with the president. So much of their current advantages rely on their direct relationships and ability to assuage his ego, which has certainly paid dividends for them over the past year: antitrust investigations dropped, trade loopholes opened, executive orders signed, and so on. (What do you think the ballroom donations were for?) And it’s possible that they believed that the Iran situation would be similar to Venezuela, wherein they’d reap the benefits of seizing Iran’s oil supply, and decided not to intervene.
But there’s a critical characteristic they overlooked, one that dates back to Trump’s relationship with Roy Cohn in the ’70s: Trump does not like to be humiliated by his foes, and Trump is always inclined to strike back twice as hard in order to crush their spirits, with little care for consequences or long-term damage. It mostly manifests via legal challenges and lawsuits in America, but has occasionally gone in a violent direction (see: January 6th and the ICE protests in Minnesota). In this case, he is trying to one-up a violent religious theocracy, which declared a military jihad against the United States in the wake of Khamenei’s death, and also possesses missiles. The rich nerds who make the beep-boops have very little chance of changing Trump’s mind — especially so long as there’s a political contingent on the right egging him on — and even if Sacks believed he was talking to a friendly audience in an online safe space, there’s no guarantee that Trump will be happy that he voiced dissent at all.
Oh, right, crypto is still happening, too.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t catch a lot of the Blockchain Conference this year (see: Iran) but it seems like some major developments came out of it, including the CFTC and the SEC dropping a major guidance that most digital assets are not securities, clarifying the way that certain cryptocurrency is regulated and whose rules apply. But though it’s the most comprehensive document released around this crucial issue, they also warned that it still needs Congress to pass laws that would make those changes permanent, and the CFTC is pretty busy as is. In other words: The Clarity Act still needs to be passed, guys. And that seems to be going great. Right?
.. another blockchain-based bar! This time, Polymarket announced the surprise opening of The Situation Room, “the world’s first bar dedicated to monitoring the situation.” According to renderings posted on X, the bar, described as a “sports bar just for situation monitoring,” will have everything one needs to monitor the situation: live feeds on X, sports games, and Bloomberg terminals. (Polymarket did not immediately comment on where said bar would be located.)
screenshot via @polymarket/X.
I’ve been doing some spring cleaning at home and recently found a quart-sized Ziploc bag that’s got a handful of spare change that I’ve been meaning to drop off at a Coinstar for over a year. But I’m lazy, and if there’s anything I’ve learned from TMZ, it’s that paying money for stories works (sometimes). So I will give this bag of loose change to anyone who can send authentic, verified, non-AI generated footage of this reported fight between Sam Altman and playwright Jeremy O. Harris at the exclusive, off-the-record Vanity Fair Oscar Party, allegedly over OpenAI’s contract with the Pentagon. (I presume the audience of Regulator is composed of Hollywood A-listers.)
And, no, I’m not going to send you the cash equivalent of the bag’s value. The condition for the payout is that you have to take this bag off of my hands, including all of the Costa Rican currency. AND I’m keeping all the quarters. And in the extraordinarily unlikely event that someone follows through on this offer, I have to get permission from Nilay Patel to break the ethics policy this one time, because this is technically a quid pro quo, albeit an extremely awful quid pro quo for whomever sends it.
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