How To - Emergency Records On USB Thumb Drive

Step 13 Protection/Encryption

Let's talk about protecting that data. There are several different ways to go here:

-Protect the drive (drive encryption with password access)
-Protect the folder (folder encryption with password access)
-Protect the file (file encryption with password access)

You may want to do any or all of these. In an emergency, especially a health related one, you want medical personnel to get your health info easily without any delay.

For this reason I'm putting health at the top of the list and prioritizing all the content as follows with the level of access assigned:

1. Health records (limited access)
2. Important Contact (limited access)
3. Important Documents (owner access only)
4. Home Inventory (owner access only)
5. Vehicle Info (owner access only)
6. Family Photos (open access)
7. Music & Videos (open access)

For this project I'm recommending TruCrypt. It's widely used and easily available.

Well that's it for now. I think I've covered everything. Now before some of you tell me that I should have used this software or that software, These are my recommendations and yours will probably be a little different.

The point of this instructable is to give you a good overview of what type of info you want to keep on your thumb drive and how to go about it.

Good luck and I'd like to hear from some of you in a positive way.

Happy trails.

UPDATE:
Many of you have commented with some good suggestions on ways to improve this instructable.
A word on emergency heath records and encryption. I pdf my critical (life threatening allergies) health info and put it in the root of the drive with a title "EMT Read 1st". Everything else is encrypted with TrueCrypt as a hidden volume. You can't see it, and only I know the password. I feel this is pretty strong. I purposely made the password very difficult to replicate.

Keep those comments coming.

Comments

[Moonrabbit]

I've considered things like this myself. But more educational materials than personal records. autonomousoperations would appreciate the Fallout reference here. If you were to assemble a kit with instructions on reestablishing infrastructure, if say a generation were to pass before you were able to start rebuilding. What information would you want that next generation of have available to them? On a smaller scale for personal use, what information would you want to have on hand if there were a cataclysm, you didn't have broad access to books, internet was gone, etc? Farming techniques, designs for generators, turbines, edible plants, medical techniques. Whatever you can think of. Black and white diagrams and documents take up so little space. You could fit books upon books on an 8gb drive. Just another thing to consider.

[macrumpton]

I guess you would have to have faith that the EMP/Flooding/Lack of power would not make all the computers into doorstops. If you are assuming cataclysm, a time capsule with lots of microfilm/fiche and a portable reader is the only way to go. Media that are only readable by complex electronic devices is not a good contingency plan.

[CybergothiChe]

man, you are sooooooooo right

[CybergothiChe]

but then, if all technology is destroyed, how would we read these USB drives?

[RaNDoMLeiGH]

"On a smaller scale for personal use, what information would you want to have on hand if there were a cataclysm, you didn't have broad access to books, internet was gone, etc? Farming techniques, designs for generators, turbines, edible plants, medical techniques. Whatever you can think of. Black and white diagrams and documents take up so little space. You could fit books upon books on an 8gb drive." Well, assuming that you are in such a scrape, you probably aren't going to have any electricity, which means that you're hosed as soon as your batteries run out. If you truly must be prepared for a major inconvenience, you would probably want a microfische reader that you can hand crank and read via sunlight or candle light. Microfische takes up more room, true, but does have the advantage that if you were tossed onto Gilligan's Island you could read Robinson Crusoe or Lord of the Flies with no problem, and be able to look up all sorts of recipes for bananas and seafood.

[Moonrabbit]

Once things had settled down a bit, I don't think it would be that hard to get electricity. I mean just look at all the instructables on power generation. There's no shortage of card and batteries, use a car charger, pocket solar chargers are available anywhere now, wind turbines, or hook a generator up to a waterwheel.

[bitterbug]

I'd recommend the SAS Survival Guide, and the collection of army field manual available on most torrent sites. Also Peterson's Guide to Edible Wild Plants.

[RaNDoMLeiGH]

I love that SAS guide. Have a hard copy stuck in my trunk Just In Case. On a practical level, choose your electronic instruments for battery life. For example... don't get the Google G1 phone. Your batteries are drained by the end of one day. I hate it. On the other hand, an old Palm IIIC, while it doesn't have a whole lot of space (8mg?) can run for at least a week before dying. Laptops, eh... maybe a couple hours. Even with a UPS you're not going to last long if there is no electricity at all and you don't have a generator, solar, turbine, etc.

[Johenix]

Another good choice is the USAF survival manual. Lots of mountain climbing methods in it, also celestial navigation with just an accurate watch for starters. "Bushcraft" by Richard Graves WWII Australian manual, Good.

Get a 12v power supply that plugs into a car cigarette lighter.

[autonomousoperations]

I have an idea for encrypting medical records. I agree that vital info needs to be available to the doctor putting you back together but if i get mugged and lose my wallet then i don't want who ever has it to know every thing about my medical history. So in the EMT's read this first section at the end you could put a note with instructions of how to get access to all the medical data. Some thing like "to access my full medical record you need to start the application (what ever you used to encrypt) and open the all my medical info directory. The password is my blood type + the location of my birth mark in layman's terms (birthmark, scar, tattoo or some distinguishable mark on your body. ) + the length on my index figure from the first joint to the tip rounded to the nearest centimeter. this will look like 'AB lower back 5' when typed out." Just choose stuff they can figure out in a timely manner.