Before You Die, Write Down Your Passwords

Sorry for the morbid headline, but it's an important thing to do. I've thought about this quite a bit in the past (and taken my own advice). Today, we're using computers and other systems so much that we've got passwords, secret words, and PINs almost everywhere.

Good security practices advise us that we shouldn't use the same password in any two places to prevent a breach. Of course, that's easier said than done for your average, non-unix sys admin. Reality is that most of us might have a few passwords that we rotate through (along with a few screen names, member names, whatever).

But here's a very compelling example of why we need to document this information for someone close to us to find in case we pass away.

The family of a U.S. Marine killed in Iraq was denied access to the soldier's Yahoo e-mail account due to the company's policies, raising questions of whether businesses should balance privacy with special requests.

The Marine, Justin Ellsworth, 20, was killed in November by a roadside bomb in Falluja while assisting civilian evacuations before the large-scale military offensive against insurgents in the city, according to a report in the Detroit Free Press. But when Ellsworth's father John tried to recover his e-mail account, he was barred due to Yahoo's policy of not giving e-mail passwords to anyone besides the account holder.

A Yahoo spokeswoman said the company's terms of service require the company not to disclose private e-mail communications for its users. Yahoo will turn over the account to family members only after they go through the courts to verify their identity and relationship with the deceased. After 90 days of inactivity, Yahoo deletes the account.

Source: News.com, "Yahoo denies family access to dead marine's e-mail"

So the advice here is to make your list and check it twice. In this case it really doesn't matter if you've been naughty or nice. Oh yeah, and one last tidbit - if you're using your ex's name or some other form and your in a committed relationship - change it (how's that gonna make your significant other feel) ;).