Left In Peace — Cybersecurity Guide

The Five Things That Matter Most

Pick a PIN you'll remember, but no one else would guess Avoid birthdays, anniversaries, 1234, or the last four of your phone number. A short phrase translated to numbers (like the year you met your spouse plus your first pet's age) is easier to remember and harder to guess.

Never store the recovery image on the USB drive itself Keep the recovery photo on your phone, in your email's "saved" folder, or printed in a safe. The photo is one piece of a PIN reset (your printed word cards are the rest) — keeping the pieces apart means whoever finds the drive holds less of the puzzle.

Give the two security keys to two different people — and the spare copies to two more Both keys are required to unlock the drive for your heirs, and each key card prints in two copies. Give copy 1 of each key to its holder and copy 2 to a backup person, so one lost card never locks your family out. Neither key alone can open the drive while you're still living (unless you deliberately turn on Emergency Access, which lets one key holder see only medical, insurance, and bill-paying basics).

Keep the drive somewhere private — not on your desk A small safe, a locked drawer, or a hidden spot is fine. The drive has its own built-in lock, but physical privacy adds one more layer.

Eject before you unplug On Windows, right-click the drive and choose "Eject." On Mac, drag the drive to the Trash. This prevents accidental file corruption.

Smart Habits While Filling It In

Use the Left In Peace USB on a computer you trust Your home laptop is fine. Avoid public computers (library, hotel business center) — they may have hidden software that records what you type.

Make sure your computer's own login has a password If you walk away mid-session, no one should be able to sit down and look at your screen.

Close Left In Peace when you step away Click "Done — Close & Lock." It takes two seconds and clears the session.

Keep your browser up to date Chrome, Edge, and Brave update themselves automatically in the background. If you've ignored an update prompt for weeks, restart the browser.

Once a Year, Do This

Re-read your kit and update anything that changed New accounts, new passwords, new attorney, moved house, new grandchild. The Annual Review Calendar on the USB has a simple month-by-month prompt.

Confirm your key holders — and their backup people — still have their cards A quick phone call. "Just checking — you still have the envelope I gave you?"

Your recovery picture stays valid when you change your PIN The picture doesn't change with the PIN — no new photo needed. What actually resets a forgotten PIN is your two printed word cards; the picture just helps prove it's you.

If Something Goes Wrong

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If you think the drive is lost

Don't panic. The drive is encrypted — without your PIN or both security keys, no one can read what's on it. Email team@leftinpeace.com and we'll walk you through replacing it and changing any passwords you'd stored.

If you downloaded a backup copy (More options... → Download a Backup Copy) with version 1.9.6 or later, you can put it onto a new, empty drive: the new drive's first screen has a link, "Replacing a lost or damaged drive? Put a backup file onto this drive." The new drive keeps the same PIN and the same word cards. That backup file is protected the same way as the drive — your PIN or both cards — so keep it somewhere just as safe, not emailed around or left on a shared computer.

You can also keep a spare: copy everything on your Left In Peace drive onto a second USB drive (More options... → Copy to a New Drive shows how). The spare opens with the same PIN and the same word cards. Keep it somewhere as safe as the original, and copy again now and then so it stays up to date.

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If you forget your PIN

Your two printed word cards reset it — on any computer. On the login screen, choose "Forgot your PIN?", pick "I have my two word cards," and enter both patterns. The recovery photo on your phone is a helper (it can open the reset screen too), but the cards do the reset. This is exactly when your key holders matter.

Because anyone holding both cards could do this, a reset is never silent: the next time you sign in with your PIN, a yellow notice says when your PIN was changed with the cards. If that wasn't you, click "It Wasn't Me — Make New Family Keys" and the old cards stop working.

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If you see something strange on your computer

If a pop-up claims your computer is infected, asks you to call a number, or demands payment — close the browser, don't click anything, and don't enter your PIN. Left In Peace never sends pop-ups, never asks for payment, and never calls you.

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About updates

When you click "Check for Updates" inside the app, every update is signed and verified before it installs, and it happens entirely in-app. Left In Peace never asks you to download or run a program — updates happen entirely inside the app. If an email or website ever offers you a "Left In Peace update" to download, it is not from us.

What Left In Peace Already Does for You

You don't have to think about any of this — it's just built in:

Built-in encryption on the drive itselfThe drive scrambles every file by itself. Even if someone copies the raw data off it, what they get is nonsense without the PIN.

No internet, no online accountNothing to hack from the outside. Nothing for a data breach to expose.

Session lockThe app clears itself when you close it, so a casual passerby can't see your information.

15-minute auto-lockIf you step away and forget, the app saves your work and locks itself after 15 minutes of no activity. Nothing is lost — just enter your PIN to continue.

Sensitive fields hidden by defaultPasswords and account numbers are masked on screen until you choose to reveal them.

One Last Thought

Good security isn't about being paranoid — it's about being calm and consistent. A PIN you remember, a recovery image on your phone, two trusted people with the keys, and a quick check once a year. That's it. You've already done the hard part by putting this together.