Originally Posted by
Dubai Stu
If you are traveling with someone else consider cross-polinating your wallets.
+1 to this, as well as a US Passport Card as a second ID (don't have one myself, but could be very helpful), as well as different accounts for a spouse (not just an authorized user)
If you are paranoid, you can also do something very basic like inverting the last four digits of your credit card on your list. I don't know about picsoffido.zip with a password. I would rather call it fidosrabicert.wpd. Let the cracker get a WordPerfect viewer, figure out it isn't really a WPD file, sort out that it is a ZIP, and then crack the password.
This kind of obfuscation (or "staganography", if you will) is not a bad idea, and it may fool some random person that stole your usb key or laptop, but it won't stop anyone even mildly competent. Figuring out if a file is a WordPerfect document or a ZIP file takes about 10 seconds, and it doesn't involve looking at whether it's .WPD or .ZIP
Originally Posted by
cordelli
Also you do not need to leave them online all the time, if it worries you just put them up when you are traveling, and take them down when you are not
Unfortunately, "take them down" doesn't always work as well as you'd like. It's very hard to delete things from the internet
As to copying credit cards, it gives you the number to call on the back, and your card number. Yes you could store all those in a list someplace, write them down, etc, it's just another way to have them all.
If your wallet is stolen, is it really necessary to be 10-20 minutes faster cancelling your cards? With an Internet connection, you can find those phone numbers easily if you know the name of your banks, and they can surely look up your accounts based on SSN or similar. ATMs are pin-protected, and credit cards limit your liability, so waiting a few hours to cancel shouldn't result in any damages. The one time I lost a credit card, I'm glad I took it easy, got another drink, and waited--because the bar eventually found it, and cancelling it would've been a PITA since it had some recurring payments on it
We willingly hand our credit cards, passports, license to waiters, hotel clerks, etc all the time. I have little concern storing an image online.
Any extra copies of the relevant information--whether hardcopy or online--increase the chance that the information will be stolen. Yes, we give them to waiters, hotel clerks, and shady web sites in shady countries--but at least you know who those people are. They're not some kid on the internet with your password buying porn with your credit card