What’s Your Backup Plan?

At Offline Trust, we believe 3 security blankets is the right balance of a robust backup plan without too much overhead. Under the following failure scenarios below, we’ll go through the progression of having no security blanket whatsoever to the 3-blanket plan, and highlight the major differences.

Failure Scenarios

What happens if you forget a password to an important account?

No blanket: You furiously type all combinations of the password you think it should be. If you’re lucky, you’ve stored backup codes somewhere.
Security Blanket: All you have to do is look it up.

What happens if your phone breaks?

No blanket: You hope you are logged into your accounts on another device, or have a backup code saved somewhere. Otherwise you have to go through the 3rd party service’s recovery options that could take days or weeks depending on the 3rd party.
Security Blanket: You can restore access from scratch, just log in from another device.

What happens if you lose all of your devices?

No blanket: Hope you remember your passwords and can find your backup codes. It’s going to be painful.
Security Blanket: You can restore access to all your accounts, simply login from another device.

What happens if a loved one needs to access a family account you manage, but you’re unavailable (i.e. overseas)?

No blanket: Hope they can piece together how to login from your backup codes, password hints, after getting access your home device.
Security Blanket: Should be more straightforward for them to figure out how to gain access.
2 Security Blankets: If the loved one is a trusted contact, they already have a security blanket and can get access.

What happens if a natural disaster destroys your home including all of your devices and backup codes?

No blanket: Hope you remember your passwords and kick yourself for not having another backup. You’re facing a painful account recovery process.
Security Blanket: You’re toast here as well.
2 Security Blankets: You’re safe with a 2nd security blanket at an off-site location.

What happens if you need to access an account, but you’re overseas and can’t access your devices or backup codes from home?

No blanket: You have to wait, and unfortunately can’t access it until you get back.
Security Blanket: Need to wait
2 Security Blankets: Need to wait
3 Security Blankets: With a 3rd security blanket stored with a trusted contact, you can call your trusted contact to login on your behalf with their copy of the security blanket and get it done.

What happens if a loved one needs to access a family account, but there’s been a natural disaster, so your home, devices, and security blanket are destroyed AND you’re unavailable?

No blanket: You are out of luck.
Security Blanket: out of luck
2 Security Blankets: out of luck
3 Security blankets: A trusted contact will have a security blanket to restore access.

Set Up Your Backup Plan

Learn more about the right backup plan for you by comparing your options and reading through the different backup guides.