Sunday, March 09, 2008
Security questions
Bit of a random peeve. Many banks, credit card outfits, other companies, use some form of security question as a supposedly unforgettable password. It's a very old trick: Western Union used it 100 years ago as a way to verify money orders.
The old standard is "mother's maiden name", which is nicely unique and memorable. If you know anything about your family, you know this, and it's not going to change over time. In the last year or so, most companies seem to have abandoned good old MMN. Wonder why? Hackers using public records to find it, or idiotic multicultural concerns about "diverse family types"? If Heather has two daddies, she will be embarrassed by the question about her mother.
In any case, none of the security questions that I set up in previous years seem to work now. Part may be my own peculiarity, but part is sloppiness on the part of companies. Example of the former: One online ISP gave a choice of questions, presumably easy and definite for most people, but none of which I could answer with any certainty. Favorite movie? Don't like any movies. First girlfriend? Depends on definition: first crush, first kiss, first sex. First pet? Again depends on whether you count pets known in childhood or first pet I actually owned. Favorite rock band? All of them should be consigned to Hell as quickly as possible. I couldn't answer any of those questions in a unique and obvious way.
Example of pure sloppiness: A couple years ago AOL gave the chance to enter your own question, which I seized gladly as a way to form a really definite and unique combination. I remembered attending a classical concert with a friend named Jim who was a serious musician. After the concert, Jim asked "Did you hear the p'doos?" By which he meant a trick used by cello players, plucking a string then fingering down, which gives an unmistakable p'doo sound. So I entered the question "Who says pdoo" and the answer "Jim". Well, the next time I had to use a security question with AOL, this question had completely disappeared from their records, and we were back to good old "favorite movie", which I had never answered at all. ¶ 11:01 AM
The old standard is "mother's maiden name", which is nicely unique and memorable. If you know anything about your family, you know this, and it's not going to change over time. In the last year or so, most companies seem to have abandoned good old MMN. Wonder why? Hackers using public records to find it, or idiotic multicultural concerns about "diverse family types"? If Heather has two daddies, she will be embarrassed by the question about her mother.
In any case, none of the security questions that I set up in previous years seem to work now. Part may be my own peculiarity, but part is sloppiness on the part of companies. Example of the former: One online ISP gave a choice of questions, presumably easy and definite for most people, but none of which I could answer with any certainty. Favorite movie? Don't like any movies. First girlfriend? Depends on definition: first crush, first kiss, first sex. First pet? Again depends on whether you count pets known in childhood or first pet I actually owned. Favorite rock band? All of them should be consigned to Hell as quickly as possible. I couldn't answer any of those questions in a unique and obvious way.
Example of pure sloppiness: A couple years ago AOL gave the chance to enter your own question, which I seized gladly as a way to form a really definite and unique combination. I remembered attending a classical concert with a friend named Jim who was a serious musician. After the concert, Jim asked "Did you hear the p'doos?" By which he meant a trick used by cello players, plucking a string then fingering down, which gives an unmistakable p'doo sound. So I entered the question "Who says pdoo" and the answer "Jim". Well, the next time I had to use a security question with AOL, this question had completely disappeared from their records, and we were back to good old "favorite movie", which I had never answered at all. ¶ 11:01 AM
