As we all know, privacy starts with security, which leads many people in this community to seek out secure services / software, some relentlessly so.
Then life happens, and suddenly you find yourself naked in a back alley in Hanoi (or if you already live in the region, you might instead find yourself naked in Santiago de Chile), stripped of all belongings and at best some vague recollection of an unusually good night. What is your strategy to regain access to what you need to get back home?
An no, the staff at the hotel does not recognize you.
Upload a keepassXC vault to a cloud service like drop box. I have an encrypted version of my 2fa authentication config file in my keepass vault. If i where to loose everything i could recover logins. Remember Never upload a unencrypted file to the cloud!
In a word, prevention.
If a good night out includee waking up hung over in a foreign country, it’s time to head to an AA meeting.
As an old retiree I know that life is incompatible with long time plans, life always has other ones. More important to have enough mental sources to be capable to make the bestt of current situations.
Call the embassy. This has nothing to do with privacy.
thoughts and prayers
I’m thankfully currently not in that situation, but while the situation is meant as a joke, the question is serious.
If I stored everything I needed on a Google account that’s not 2FA-enabled and with a password you remember in your head, things are not that bleak in this particular situation, although it is hardly a convenience that makes it worth it to have that kind of setup in my opinion (and I would assume to most people frequenting this community).
When was the last time you tried to access a Google account from another device in a new location? They won’t let you in, you’ll be in a maze of fake “wrong password” errors, recovery emails that never arrive because they have nevet been sent and whatever they came up with this year.
The password to my home server is a salted hash of my primary (memorized) password, so I can recover it from any computer that can run the hash function. From there I can access the rest of my saved passwords, bookmarks, etc.
That’s simple and smart. I had played around with the thought of storing encrypted versions of my password manager vault freely available, and making the password a Ceasar cipher of the first letters of each chapter of some book I am sure to find freely online. Not so simple and smart, but at least some fun. Except maybe when you actually need to use it.
guess i live in Hanoi now
My brother ended up lost in a major city, 3 hours away from home and our parents. He didn’t know where he parked his car, just that it was “at a hotel”. Drugs were almost certainly involved.
His strategy was to wander around asking to borrow strangers’ cell phones until he ended up in a gas station run by an immigrant couple who were OMG lovely. They let him use their phone and they fed him until my parents could drive over and pick him up.
My parents found his car by posting “lost car” ad on Craigslist with a reward.
Anyways, my strategy’s probably to find a local library or equivalent and email my partner and friends a “please help” message. Hopefully someone lends/gives me clothes along the way.
Edit: oops, I said 3 miles. It was 3 hours. Updated.
I don’t think privacy or digital accounts would be any concern to me at that point. I’d mostly want to get somewhere safe, then get my passport or a new one, and get home. Then I can deal with the loss of devices.
I’d start by installing arch
On what computer, and where did you get the ISO from?
Arch people always carry both with them at all times.
Farming
I host my password manager (VW) on my server. The password of my server is on said password manager. Am I screwed?
I have ONE password written down on paper, laminated, and hidden in a spot where only the wife and I know. Can you guess what it’s for?
hunter2 can both be stored in a password mananger and be remembered!
Lawyers Guns and Money intensifies
Tbh if I was naked and stripped of all my belongings I’d reach out to the police and hopefully they could help or at least get me a phone call and some clothes
Edit: Nvm I think I understood the question the first time
Maybe Assist America. They should be able to help with documents, travel, medical, and extraction.
Otherwise, locals, police, churchs, embasy, etc.
