I've been lurking for a while, and decided it's time for my first posting.
I've been reading about people adding USB thumbdrives to their kits, storing pertinent documents, scans of banking or identification documents, medical info, and the like. Any other Ideas? Home inventories?

Advantage: Store lots of data in a very small space and relatively rugged.

Disadvantages: Need a "newer" computer to access data (and perhaps a special driver as well). If lost/stolen, might make you an identity theft victim if data is not encrrypted. Identity theft will take you YEARS to straighten out.

Here's what I have on mine: Documents scanned in.
Info for myself & wife.
Social Security card
photo of self & wife
Birth Certificate
Will
Drivers License
Diplomas High School
Regents
AAS
Baptismal Certificate
Medical History
Medical insurance
Car & truck Registration
Title
Insurance Card
USMC DD 214
Marriage License
House Insurance Info
Pet Information:
Pictures of pets
Merlin License
Immunizations
Freydis Immunizations
Victoria Immunizations

The comment about identity theft is a good one. Hopefully, USB will be around for a while. I think that a USB port is standard on computers now.

Identity theft isnt that big of a scare. If anyone whom has any self motivation and your intelligent to be reading this forum to begin with....you can easily prevent someone from stealing your idenity ie. keep up with your sh*t, dont go nosing around on goofy websites, dont order stuff from any oddball
jo-schmo website, and simply if you dont want it "out there" dont put it up for display. etc.........and simply keep an eye out on your accounts. One other tip is to stay with VISA they are more secure than most. Encryption is a safe bet..........but keep in mind its not fool proof. I consider the USB ( i carry one myself for personal, work, business. etc..) like my wallet-dont lose it, and if you do, you better be ready to know the appropriate resources shut down your accounts, and stabalize all of your loose ends securily.
Also, if a computer is so old that it dosent have any usb ports at all ..............well its probably not the one your gonna be depending on to retrieve those special documents anyway. One last thing... if it has a USB port, it probably has plug and play.

I respectfully disagree...identity theft is a VERY big deal. It can go undetected for months or years, even with the victim being vigilant. The last person we convicted in this area made a six-figure income from it for several years. Part of her plea agreement was to make a police training video on how she did it. The video is two hours long, and only scratches the surface.

After a local disaster, your personal information may be scattered everywhere, but not by you! How well does your landlord or the store up the street maintain your personal information?

I agree with you that, like your wallet, you should not loose your USB drive (or have it taken from you), if possible. But that is not always possible under all circumstances.

This is one of my investigative specialties. If anyone is interested in learning more, send me a PM, and I will attempt to assist you. And no, you don't need to provide me your personal data! <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Having a working credit card (and perhaps the ability to access additional credit) would seem to me to be a vital survival tool. Not as sexy as knives, fire starters, and flashlights however!

Given the vast amount of space available, I'd include friends addresses, and a complete phone list ( friends, family, work, back-up numbers Hey what the alternative number for 911 in your area buckaroo?) Got your kids school number on there? your neighbor, your plumber, doc?

Photos of your house, serial numbers of your expensive gear -- for insurance.

A city map. Your Prescriptions. ( glasses, too!) A basic first aid text.

Keep thinking on this one,

TRO

PS you might also consider backing up your information at a remote site -- a relatives, for instance

Now no need in trying to change the focus of what i was trying to make a point about...............i agree its a huge ordeal if it happens...........but one can take simple measures to advoid it. What i get tired of hearing is people saying becareful it could happen to you. No one ever says hey thats a growing issue lets discuss ways to prevent it!
Knowledge is the first step in prevention, and its all a part of being truly EQUIPPED!
-you did mention "go for years unnoticed" -your bank can do simple credit checks and social/name linking with open accounts at the click of a computer......and its usually free if you just ask!

Speaking of inventorying your home. The "Insurance Information Institute" has a free software program to inventory your home. It is "Know Your Stuff". Glock-A-Roo originally told the forum about the software in this thread.

Being the paranoid, nothing is for free type of guy - I checked out the organization. "III attempts to improve public understanding of insurance -- what it does and how it works. The site is subdivided into sections for "Individuals" (consumer info) "Media" (press info). [some content available in Spanish]"

I had previously downloaded the software. Going to use it with the digital camera I am giving my wife for Christmas. Then I'm going to try and inventory my mother's home.

I like the statement from the download page.
"Please note that the I.I.I. is providing this electronic home inventory for you to install on your computer. To safeguard your privacy, the I.I.I. will not have access to your personal home inventory files. It is your responsibility to save your home inventory in a secure location." {such as a USB drive}

*** STANDARD DISCLAIMER *** I am not affliated with III.org by employment nor commerce. Opinions stated are my own and definitely not that of my employer. No garauntees as to your satisfaction with use of this product are stated nor implied by me. Any symbolism to persons living, dead, or undead is circumstantial. TANSTAAFL & YMMV. And if all else fails, I'll blame it on Glock-A-Roo. <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Ben

One thing I have learned over the years is to never bother with these free downloads from companies or organizations unless they are a well supported open source project. What usually happens is after 5 or so years you can't find that program anymore for download and you find out it won't work on someone else's system because the manufacturer never tested with with all versions of windows. Keep your documents in the most basic of formats, plain text, csv, etc. Don't even trust programs such as Microsoft Office even though they see to be very popular as they have dropped support for some of their older file versions in the past.

Agree with Eugene. I prefer the most basic of formats that can be loaded up ANY system or software. I remember having data on an old MAC. The word processing and spreadsheets files transfered to Windows platforms easily but the other data written by specialized software had to be left out.No way of transfering them.

That was an eye opener.

However, having said that, it seems that most people have MS Word & Excel. And so it would seem safe enough to assume they would be there in some time.

I save webpages like this one as an MHTML ( the web-ARCHIVE format ) , that allows saving everything in it in one file, instaed of using htm, or html format that saves the webpages in one file plus one folder for images. I hope those single-file archives would be reable for some time.