Why You Shouldn’t Keep Your Life Admin on a Laptop

Your laptop isn’t the safe deposit box you think it is.

For many people, their entire personal and financial life sits on one device.

Insurance documents, pension statements, payslips, medical notes - the laptop has become the filing cabinet of the digital age.

But unlike a locked cabinet, it’s fragile, portable, and far too easy to lose.

Let’s look at why relying on a laptop for your life admin exposes you to unnecessary risk, and what you should do instead.

The Illusion of Safety

What Really Happens When Your Laptop Fails?

A laptop can be stolen, corrupted by malware, or simply stop working.

When it does, all the files you’ve carefully saved - from scanned IDs to mortgage paperwork - can disappear in an instant.

Backups help, but only if you’ve remembered to run them, test them, and store them securely.

Why Local Storage Is an Open Invitation to Risk

Unlike physical files locked away in a drawer, a laptop is (usually) always connected, and often to different access points.

That makes it a target for phishing, ransomware, and opportunistic theft.

Storing sensitive life admin locally means every password, policy, and certificate could be compromised simultaneously.

Is Cloud Storage the Answer?

General cloud services like Google Drive or iCloud solve the device problem, but they weren’t designed with life admin in mind.

They can store files, but they rarely provide tailored protections, audit trails, or user-friendly ways to manage who sees what and when.

There’s also the trust factor. Many people are uneasy about handing their most sensitive financial or health records to global tech giants.

And with Google and Apple accounts among the most frequently targeted by phishing and credential-stuffing attacks, the login risk only increases.

Without purpose-built safeguards, cloud storage simply shifts the risk rather than solving it.

Logins Gone Wild: Why Access Is Often the Weakest Link

Our Logins Gone Wild research showed that the average person in the UK has over a hundred online accounts, yet fewer than one in five use a password manager.

Instead, people rely on memory, unsecured notes, or reuse the same details across multiple services. That creates a fragile front door.

If your laptop login is just another recycled password - and MFA isn’t switched on - it only takes one phishing attempt or stolen credential to put years of personal and financial information at risk.

What to Do Instead

From Devices to a Secure Cloud Vault

What you really need is one place to keep sensitive data in the cloud - accessible from anywhere, but designed with security and control in mind.

That means strong identity checks, clear consent flows, and easy permission management.

There are solutions emerging to meet this challenge. For example, some businesses are providing customers with secure smart assistants for life admin (such as Nigel) that integrate with trusted providers.

These bring encrypted storage, structured data organisation, consent-based sharing, and renewal reminders into one safe place - with storage and permissions controlled by the user.

This is the direction of the future. But whether you have a purpose-built service for life admin through an organisation or not, the following steps outline practical, risk-based actions you can take today.

1) Build a Safer Access Layer: Passwords, MFA, Passkeys

• Use a password manager to generate and store unique credentials for every account.
• Turn on multi-factor authentication (MFA) everywhere, prioritising email, cloud storage, banking, and healthcare portals.
• Adopt passkeys where supported to reduce phishing risk and password reuse.
• Separate accounts: keep work and personal identities distinct to limit blast radius if one is compromised.

2) Encrypt What Matters, at Rest and in Transit

• Device encryption (BitLocker/FileVault) on laptops and mobiles by default.
• File-level encryption for IDs, medical, and financial records before storing or sharing.
• Secure email for sending sensitive documents with personal data (policy numbers, NI numbers, health info).

3) Backups That Actually Work (The 3-2-1 Rule)

• 3 copies: your live copy plus two backups.
• 2 different media: e.g., cloud + external drive.
• 1 off-site or immutable: use version history or write-once storage so ransomware can’t encrypt everything at once.
• Test restores quarterly so you know your backups actually work.

4) Structure Your Admin: Don’t Just Secure - Manage

• Tag documents (e.g., “Home Insurance”, “MOT”, “Mortgage”) to find them fast.
• Set calendar reminders for renewals and deadlines (insurance, MOT, passports, tenancy dates).

5) Share Safely With the Right People

• Prefer permissioned links with expiry and access control rather than email attachments, or use a secure email tool like Mailock.
• Limit scope: share a specific document, not a whole folder.
• Keep a sharing log of what was shared, with whom, and when; revoke access after use.
• Create a “trusted contact” plan for family members who may need access in an emergency.

6) If You Stick With General Cloud, Harden It First (Minimums)

• Enable MFA and passkeys on Google/Apple IDs; monitor sign-in alerts.
• Disable link sharing to “anyone with the link” - share only to named accounts or individuals.
• Turn on version history and ransomware recovery features where available.
• Review connected apps often; remove those you don’t use.
• Use regional data residency options if relevant to your circumstances.

Why This Matters

For Individuals and Families

From safeguarding children’s medical records to protecting inheritance paperwork, moving away from device-bound storage reduces the stress of “what if?”

At a time when families are already under financial pressure, reducing risks can make a real difference to wellbeing and resilience.

For Organisations and Advisers

Customers expect digital services that are not only simple, but trustworthy.

Advisers, insurers, and banks can’t afford the reputational or regulatory fallout of data lost because someone’s laptop was compromised.

For organisations, supporting clients to move away from device-bound storage - and towards controlled, secure ways of handling sensitive information - builds confidence and aligns with regulatory expectations such as the FCA Consumer Duty.

Your Laptop Is Secure... Until It’s Not

Your laptop is a tool, not a vault. Treating it as the guardian of your life admin is an invitation to loss, chaos, and risk.

The better path is to move important documents into environments designed for security, structure, and control - whether that’s through emerging platforms or through stronger personal practices.

Either way, the message is clear: life admin belongs somewhere safer than sitting isolated on your laptop.

FAQs

What’s the Risk of Storing Documents on a Laptop?

Laptops can be lost, stolen, hacked, or fail without warning.

That puts all your life admin at risk of loss or exposure, often without a backup plan.

Is Cloud Storage Safer?

Cloud storage avoids device failure, but general services like Google Drive or iCloud weren’t designed for sensitive life admin.

They raise trust concerns and are frequent targets for phishing and credential-stuffing attacks.

They’re safer than a lone laptop, but not a complete solution.

What’s the Best Approach?

The best option is to use a system designed for sensitive information: one that combines encryption, strong authentication, and clear user control.

Some organisations are now looking to offer customers access to secure assistants (e.g., platforms like Nigel) to provide exactly that.

Without these services, you should adopt strong passwords, MFA, encryption, structured reminders, safer sharing, and secure backups to reduce risk.

References

FCA Guidance on Cyber Resilience, FCA, 2024

Global 2025 Cyber Risk Report, Aon, 2025

ICO Data Protection Advice, ICO, 2024

Missing Out Report, Policy in Practice, 2025

Logins Gone Wild, Beyond Encryption, 2023

What Is Secure Email, Beyond Encryption, 2025

Mailock, Beyond Encryption, 2025

Nigel, Beyond Encryption, 2025

Reviewed by

Sam Kendall, 01.10.25