Time to Rethink Security Questions?

You have probably done it many times. You set up a new account, be it online or in a bank, and they ask you to give them an answer to several Security Questions so they can verify that it is really you.

• What is your mother's maiden name?
• What city were you born in?
• What is the name of the high school you graduated from?
• What is the name of your oldest sibling?

Have you ever thought about those questions?

In the Internet Connected Age, those are probably the most insecure questions they could be asking. Thanks to social (i.e. Facebook, LinkedIn) and Genealogy sites, most of the answers are easily accessible with little to no work.

Solving the Problem

While I would like to say that by writing this blog I am going to magically get the banking world to change its questions, I really doubt it.  So what can you do?

Personally, I use answers that I know that can't be easily found, but I can remember. For example, I could use "Alfred E. Neuman" as the basis

• What is your mother's maiden name? Neuman
• What city were you born in? Flint, Michigan
• What is the name of the high school you graduated from? MAD
• What is the name of your oldest sibling? Alfred

For those of you who don't know who I am talking about, take a look at this Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_E._Neuman.