I washed my Yubikey twice by accident. Here's how I saved it both times.

For the past five years, my Yubikey has been my digital companion. Every single day, I use it to sign my Git commits, authenticate into countless websites, and secure my most important accounts. It’s become such an integral part of my workflow that I barely think about it, until it’s not there.

A couple of years ago, I made the classic mistake of leaving it in my jeans pocket before throwing them in the washing machine. When I discovered it hours later, soaking wet and seemingly lifeless, I thought I’d lost everything. But I managed to save it using a technique I’d learned from dealing with other water-damaged electronics.