Power Up Wealth podcast – Your Digital Legacy – Episode 9 transcript:
Sharla Jessop 0:00
Have you ever wondered what happens to your information and photos on your phone and tablet if you pass away? I’m Sharla Jessop. Today we will discuss protecting your digital legacy from extinction with our technology guru Shane Thomas.
Welcome to the SFS Power Up Wealth podcast where we provide impactful insight and expert opinions on timeless financial principles and timely investment topics, preparing you to make smarter decisions with your money.
Shane, thank you for joining us today.
Shane Thomas 0:49
Thanks. Good to be here.
Sharla Jessop 0:50
I’m thrilled to have you on this side of the mic. Shane is with us on every episode. He’s the expert running the Power Up Wealth podcast. Shane is an IT Specialist and Institutional Advisor Relationship manager at Smedley Financial Services. And he has a Bachelor of Science in Information Systems from University of Utah. Shane, there is so much to know about technology. What do you think is one of the most important things people should think about?
Shane Thomas 1:14
There truly is. There is a lot to know with technology. And every day, there’s something new. There’s something more and the older you get, it seems like it’s harder to remember all the things that are going on. But I would say the biggest thing to worry about the biggest concern is passwords.
Sharla Jessop 1:30
Passwords are overwhelming. And it’s difficult to keep track of them all there. You know. Here we are changing passwords consistently. And keeping up with that is, it’s hard. What do you recommend?
Shane Thomas 1:38
The reason I mentioned passwords is everywhere you go online, every place you visit, they all want you to create a login. They want you to create a login if you’re going to order food, and they want you to create a login for your email, for your bank, your credit cards. Everything needs a login. And with that login, they all want a password. And whether it’s 10 characters. Whether it’s 20 characters. They want you to use special characters, uppercase, lowercase, numbers. It’s all different. Every one of them. Some of them even want you to tie it to your cell phone. So you get what’s called a two-factor or multi-factor authentication. So not only is it your username and password, it’s an extra code that’s created. Some of them have you use an app to create that code. It can be really daunting as a task to remember all these. And to create a password that’s really hard. Unfortunately, the bad actors out there are smart. They know that you like to switch an E for a 3, they know that you like to put, instead of a 1, you might use an exclamation point or an i. They’re really smart. And they build all these algorithms to figure out what your password is.
Sharla Jessop 2:45
It’s daunting when you think about that. When you have so many passwords, how can you even keep track of it?
Shane Thomas 2:49
There’s a couple of different ways. The first thing to do is certainly make sure you have a place that you you know, either write them down or use a what we call is a password manager. A password manager is an online program where you can add in all of your passwords to all of your locations that you have saved into one place. Some might say is that secure? Well, it is secure in that you create a really hard password. And with that, that allows you then to gain access to the password repository that have all of your passwords. So yes, I mean, if somebody figured out what your really hard password is, then I guess they would have access to all of your information. But the idea is to create that really hard password so that doesn’t happen. Only you can remember that. But the nice thing though is once you have this password manager, it helps you create really hard passwords that aren’t very easy to guess. And a lot of times the password managers are helpful. They autofill the websites for you. So you go to Amazon, and you go to login, and it automatically adds in your username and password. So you don’t have to remember what it is. You don’t have to go look at your notebook. Another handy thing is it can have an app on your phone. So if you’re not at home, where you have your special notebook with all of those written down, you have access to those same passwords.
Sharla Jessop 4:11
I can see the value in that. And we’ve used those here. And I use them personally. And I know you do as well. The nice thing is when you create or change a password, it’s stored immediately. You don’t have to remember, well, what did I just change that password to? Or when did I last change it. And you had mentioned being mobile. And you’re right. We live in a mobile society where we have our technology with us at our hip all the time. And it’s nice to be able to know you can access any of the apps from any place. So that’s great that we have all of these passwords and they’re secure. But what if something happens to us?
Shane Thomas 4:43
Yeah, that’s a good point. Yeah, if you have this really hard password that you know, and that password gives you access to all of your information or you’ve written down all these passwords in a notebook and you hide it in the back corner of your desk at home, but if you pass away, does anybody else know where are those passwords are? Or does anybody know your password to get into your password manager? Just recently, Apple created a program called the Digital Legacy in the most recent release of their operating system. What is nice about the digital legacy, it allows you to go in and designate up to five people who can have access to certain parts of your device, or devices, like your pictures, your contacts, etc, all found within your device. So if you pass away, that individual can show a code to apple that says, Hey, I’ve been specially approved as a digital legacy contact to be able to view the information on the device.
Sharla Jessop 5:43
Do you know what is so valuable about that is not only do we have passwords, protecting everything, but think about it, very few people carry a camera around anymore. We now all document everything that happens in our lives.
Shane Thomas 5:55
Right
Sharla Jessop 5:55
You know, our family, our grandchildren, places we travel on a phone, and you know, maybe we have that stored in the cloud, or backed up in the cloud. But then if nobody can get to it, what happens?
Shane Thomas 6:08
Exactly, that’s your, your digital album. Like you go to grandma’s house, and you’d pull out the album. You’d flip through the pages and they’re all these pictures covered in plastic, and you’re looking through them. Well, now, we have the same thing, except it’s on your phone or on your iPad. And once you pass away, and those things disappear, they’re gone. One thing that’s nice about this is each of these companies have found that, hey, this is a problem and they’ve come up with a solution. And Apple’s solution, giving people the digital legacy contact access to the information. Google has something very similar. You can set up what’s called an inactivity monitor. So if your account, nothing happens in it, over a certain period of time, an individual or individuals get a notification that says, hey, this person’s account hasn’t been active, we’re going to terminate it. But before that, you’ve been notified. If you want to get access to the info, here’s how you do it. So, the companies are realizing that, hey, there’s a lot of important information that’s there. And if they want, it should be able to get to it before it’s gone.
Sharla Jessop 7:09
I think that’s extremely valuable. And I think everybody should consider using that part of the technology that’s available and protecting those things that they have. You just mentioned something that sparked a thought in my mind, you said they’re gonna notify you and right now, there’s a lot of bad actors out there notifying people of things through email and other things.
Shane Thomas 7:29
That is true there are there. You get an email every day from someone that’s, you know, from a bank, you didn’t know you had or, or, or even it might be your own bank, and you’re thinking, oh, that is this a real email? Or is this not a real email? Or people are sending hey, here’s the invoice that for such and such an item and you don’t recall purchasing it? But maybe you did. What I recommend is, if you’re not sure, and it is coming from someone that you believe is one of you know, one of your contacts, give them a call, ask them hey, did you really mean to send me this spreadsheet? Or this PDF? Or this Word document? Or this image? Or the link to click on to win a million dollars? Did they really mean to send that to you? And if they didn’t then just delete it?
Sharla Jessop 8:10
What if some of those come from bad actors are very good at using logos? You know, Amazon, Microsoft? What if you get a notification from them? It’s something that looks like it’s legitimate?
Shane Thomas 8:20
If it looks legitimate, and you can always just call and see. And if it’s not, just delete it.
Sharla Jessop 8:27
So don’t call the number that’s necessarily in the email.
Shane Thomas 8:30
Do not call the number.
Sharla Jessop 8:31
Go back to the source. Go back to your Amazon account and reach out to customer service that way to see if there really is a problem.
Shane Thomas 8:37
Right. Right. And that way you can confirm indeed is there a problem with your order, or whatever it might be. But don’t click on the link in the email. Don’t call the number in it. If you have a pop-up that comes up and says, hey, Windows has a problem. It’s probably not Windows that’s telling you you have a problem. Don’t click the link. Don’t call the number. Don’t give them your credit card, or your social or any of that personal information.
I think that’s good advice. Because we get calls all the time from people who have been subjected to fraud, and it’s really hard to unwind that. It takes a lot of time and energy on the part of our clients to fix that.
It really does. It takes a lot of time. And, unfortunately, they have nothing to lose these bad actors, they have nothing to lose. So they can send 1000s and 1000s of emails in hopes that one person clicks on it and then that one person, they can lock up your computer and they call it ransomware and in demand, you know $500 or $1,000 or whatever. And because if you want to have your files back most people pay it unfortunately and they will keep doing that until people stop responding and but it’s a moneymaker for them, unfortunately.
Sharla Jessop 9:49
Pretty easy money. Unfortunately.
Shane Thomas 9:52
Yeah.
Sharla Jessop 9:52
And you know, and a lot of people fall prey to it. It’s they make it look really, really believable.
Shane Thomas 9:58
They do. They do and they’re getting better and better. It used to be the emails. The pictures were terrible. The grammar was terrible, but now they’re getting really smart. The pictures look legitimate. The text looks legitimate. The grammar is you’re like this isn’t somebody from Ukraine writing it. This looks like somebody next door writing an email. And unfortunately, it’s easy to fall victim.
Sharla Jessop 10:19
Shane, that is great information on helping our listeners protect what they’ve worked hard for and protecting also their digital legacy so they’re not just losing it if something happens, but they know how to give somebody else access. Thank you for joining us.
Shane Thomas 10:34
Thanks for having me.
Thank you for joining the Power Up Wealth podcast. Smedley Financial is located at 102 S 200 E Ste 100 in Salt Lake City, UT 84111. Call us today at 800-748-4788. You can also find us on the web at Smedleyfinancial.com, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
The views expressed are Smedley Financials and should not be construed directly or indirectly as an offer to buy or sell any securities or services mentioned herein. Investing is subject to risks, including loss of principal invested. Past performance is not a guarantee of future results. No strategy can assure a profit nor protect against loss. Please note that individual situations can vary. Therefore, the information should only be relied upon when coordinated with individual professional advice. Securities are offered through Securities America. Inc., Member FlNRA/SIPC. Roger M. Smedley, Sharla J. Jessop, James R. Derrick, Shane P. Thomas, Mikal B. Aune, Jordan R. Hadfield, Lorayne B. Taylor, Registered Representatives. Investment Advisor Representatives of Smedley Financial Services, Inc.®. Advisory services offered through Smedley Financial Services, Inc.® Smedley Financial Services, Inc.®, and Securities America, Inc. are separate entities.
