I had a very interesting conversation yesterday with a client after it turned out that she accidentally dropped her phone in some water earlier in the day.

And as a consequence she was screwed

Even a few years ago this wouldn't have been a disaster for her nor her phone

Remember the old trick of taking your phone apart and putting it in a container of dry rice? The trick was only to give the rice time to work because trying to turn it on too soon might risk creating a short circuit and wrecking the inner workings of your phone completely. But there was hope even though some commentators suggest this is not a good idea as starch particles can coat the phone's inner surfaces.

Nowadays most phone's can't be taken apart so the rice can work it;s magic. At best the sim slot can be opened and that's it. Yet there are numerous sockets and points where water can get inside.

So it was bad for her phone but bad for her.

Professionally, she uses a lot of 2FA that requires using a one time password that is generated by an app on her phone. Consequently all of her permissions were removed and she wasn't able to work. Secondly she had to make an important bank transaction which again she couldn't do as the bank sends her a one time only password by SMS to authenticate and process the transaction. She wasn't able to complete the transaction and may face consequences as a result.

My whole point is that so much is routed through our phones now that we've actually made ourselves vulnerable. Time for honesty, I must admit to that slight unease whenever i have got a new phone about whether my permissions / 2FAs etc will transfer easily to my new device. This is especially concerning when it involves assets and particularly money and crypto. I am not too bothered about my social media etc, but stuff of real material value is far more valuable and even more so these days of higher inflation.

Is it right that we can be effectively cut off from the digital world by the loss of a single device or more pertinently should we be so connected with the digital world in the first place?

And with that thought I will leave you for today. As always stay well and safe