The Digital Legacy Tree
Ensuring your loved ones can access the important parts of your digital life when it matters most
Scott Wright is a cybersecurity and privacy consultant, educator and author who specializes in digital legacy planning. Drawing on more than 20 years of experience in security, privacy, and risk management, Scott helps people organize their digital lives, protect important information, and reduce the burden placed on loved ones during incapacity or after death.
Scott has co-hosted The Shared Security Podcast since 2009, and founded a cybersecurity training startup. His business website is at: securityperspectives.com
About the Book
The Digital Legacy Tree is an essential guide for individuals who want to reduce future stress and burden on the people who depend on them.
Imagine what would happen to your loved ones if your digital assets suddenly couldn’t be accessed by people who rely on them after you die.
From email accounts and financial records to photos, devices, and online services, much of what matters now exists behind passwords, security systems, and platforms that aren’t designed to make access easy—even for the people you trust most.
Many books start by asking you to create a full "digital inventory" of everything you own or control online. That's a daunting task that makes it hard for readers to even start preparing their digital estate.
Now, there is finally a simple, step-by-step guide to solving this often-overlooked problem.
Drawing on decades of experience in cybersecurity and real-world situations where families struggled to access critical information, Scott Wright takes a different, more practical approach. This book introduces a simple, prioritized and structured methodology for organizing your digital life so that others can step in when it matters most.
Using the “Digital Legacy Tree” model, you’ll learn how to create, grow and nurture your own easy-to-navigate file to:
🌳 Identify your most critical digital assets
🌳 Create clear, reliable paths for trusted individuals
🌳 Provide context for understanding how you have lived your digital life
🌳 Avoid the most common misconceptions that lead to delays, stress, and loss
🌳 Build and maintain a resource that actually works in real-world situations
You don’t need to be a technical expert to follow this process. What matters is creating something that someone else can understand and use right away—without you.
Whether you’re planning ahead, managing responsibilities for others, or simply trying to reduce future burden on the people who rely on you, The Digital Legacy Tree will help you turn a scattered, complex digital footprint into something structured, accessible, and ready when it’s needed.
Follow the Digital Legacy Tree online at: www.facebook.com/digitallegacytree
Contents
Additional supplementary information, tools and resources
What readers say
This book is a must-read for everyone in today's digital world!
As we continue to be engulfed by advancements in the digital age, it is paramount that when we have completed life's journey, we have taken responsibility to
ensure that those responsible for attending to our estate are provided with the required information to do so, particularly as it pertains to our digital assets.
Scott Wright has provided a structured, easy-to-follow, and thorough road map that should be adopted by everyone to construct a clear and accurate representation
of their digital assets and security information, so as to provide those charged with attending to our estate with the required information to do so easily, accurately, and with
the freedom to perform their tasks with as few complications as possible."
The Digital Legacy Tree tackles an increasingly important issue that most of us simply haven’t planned for. Scott Wright takes what could be an overwhelming technical subject and turns it into a clear, practical process that anyone can follow, taking an often-overlooked area of digital risk and provides a simple, security-conscious framework for protecting our digital assets and ensuring the people we trust can access what matters when they need it most so that the digital parts of our lives don't become a burden for the people we leave behind.
Having worked with Scott, I’ve seen firsthand the depth of his cybersecurity and risk management expertise and, just as importantly, his ability to make complex issues understandable and actionable. This book reflects that strength.
This is a remarkable document - I have recommended all my family members get a copy of it for their use.