In the news: Man dies, taking all his company’s vital network passwords with him. He should have used this interesting program: Dead Man’s Switch. If it isn’t regularly reset, the program posts pre-composed e-mails to pre-selected addresses, and protect sensitive files by encrypting or destroying them. So if you die, it tells everyone.
Still, it does have some drawbacks. “I went on vacation, and forgot all about the switch,” said Kenny LaGuardia, a Web designer from Los Angeles. “When I returned home, the program had posted, ‘So I guess I’m dead’ messages to all the newslists I subscribe to, and destroyed all my adult entertainment files.” (via wired)