Security and privacy
Data breaches happen to data that's exposed. Yours isn't.
Hacks and leaks start with personal details held on a server someone can reach. KinLogs keeps your information encrypted on a stick you hold, and the standard edition is built so it cannot connect to the internet at all.
Watch
Why KinLogs is safer than an online account
Air-gapped, encrypted and sealed, explained in under three minutes. Subtitles are available from the player's menu.
Air-gapped by design
Nothing online means nothing to break into.
The standard KinLogs is air-gapped: the app and your information exist only on your memory stick, and the app is blocked from connecting to the internet. There's no account, no server holding your details and no website to attack. To read your KinLogs, someone would need your stick and your password.
KinLogs on its own
App: on your stick. Information: on your sticks only.
- Blocked from going online
- Nothing about you stored anywhere else
- Encrypted, so a lost stick is unreadable
With KinLogs Sync
App: on your stick. Information: on your sticks, plus an encrypted copy online.
- Connects only to the KinLogs Sync server
- Online copy can only be collected by your linked sticks
- Unreadable without your password, including to us
KinLogs Reader
For phones and tablets. Opens shared copies only.
- Read-only: it can't change or save anything
- Never connects, so it can't reach the online copy
- Shows only the sections you chose to share. Your full KinLogs never opens here
The full KinLogs app, the only part that can change your information, is only ever on your stick. How Sync keeps the online copy locked
Cyber attacks
What an attacker would need.
Most online services can be attacked from anywhere in the world. KinLogs can't, because there's nothing online to attack.
| If someone tried to | What happens |
|---|---|
| Hack your KinLogs account | There isn't one. Nothing to log in to, so nothing to phish. |
| Break into a KinLogs database | There's no database of your details. The standard edition never sends anything anywhere. |
| Steal or find your stick | The file is encrypted with AES-256. Without your password, it's unreadable. |
| Take the online copy, if you use Sync | They'd get an encrypted file. It's useless without your password and the KinLogs app on your stick. |
| Open it on a phone with the Reader | The Reader only opens shared copies, with their own code, showing the sections you chose. It can't open your full KinLogs. |
Encrypted with AES-256
Your file is encrypted with AES-256-GCM. Your password is stretched with hundreds of thousands of rounds of PBKDF2, which makes guessing it slow and expensive. Without the password, the file is unreadable.
Never goes online
The standard edition blocks every internet connection at the browser level. Nothing is uploaded, tracked or left behind in the browser. You can check this yourself by switching off your internet.
Ways back in
Forgot your password? Reset it with your three security questions, or with the recovery key you print when you set up. Keep the recovery key with your will.
Sealed and read-only
Family and handover copies are digitally signed. The seal code on the access card matches the copy, so your family can trust it hasn't been changed.
Locks itself
While your file is open, it's unlocked on the computer you're using, so use your own computer or one you trust. KinLogs locks itself after a period of no activity.
Encrypted before upload
If you choose KinLogs Sync, your file is encrypted before it leaves your computer. We store it, but we cannot read it. About Sync
Built to last
It may be needed in 20 years. It will still open.
Your family might need your KinLogs next week, or decades from now. So it doesn't depend on us. Each stick holds the KinLogs app and your encrypted file together, and they open in an ordinary web browser.
No account to keep, no subscription to renew, no app store and no server. If KinLogs Sync ever stopped, or KinLogs the business closed, every stick would carry on exactly as it is: the app, your information and your family copies.
- Nothing to switch off. There is no service behind a stick that could be closed down.
- Built on web standards. A web page and AES-256 encryption, which every modern browser supports.
- Two sticks, kept apart. If one fails, the other has everything.
- Refresh now and then. Memory sticks don't last for ever, so copy both onto fresh sticks every few years, as part of your yearly review.
Good habits
Keeping your KinLogs safe.
- Keep KinLogs on its sticks. Don't copy the file to your computer or to cloud storage such as OneDrive, iCloud or Google Drive. It stays encrypted, but it would no longer be air-gapped, and a copy kept elsewhere is outside how KinLogs is designed to be used.
- Use a long password you'll remember. Three or four unrelated words work well. It's what keeps the file locked, on a stick or online.
- Keep the second stick away from home, with your will, in a safe or with your solicitor.
- Keep the recovery key with the second stick, never with the first.
- Don't write the access code on the stick. It goes on the access card.
- Review once a year. KinLogs shows what's due.