Security Questions

You’ve all seen the Facebook survey posts–

What Was Your High School Mascot

or this one—-

What Was Your First Pet’s Name

Or the one asking “What’s the first live concert you’ve attended?”–I saw this one on Facebook today.  Did you know that’s one of the security questions Verizon asks to secure your account????  A good friend shared this blog post on Facebook, Don’t Give Away Historic Details About Yourself  (remember my link color is hard to see, you can click on the title and be directed to the blog post.)

In this blog post the author strongly cautions against answering any of these cute little surveys.  Just remember, Facebook is in very hot water with founder Zuckerberg testifying before Congress about its latest security breaches in which they allowed Cambridge Analytica, a political data firm to gain access to private information on more than 50 million Facebook users.

I have also seen the survey asking for your high school mascot–that exact security question is used by many banks/credit card companies, etc.  If your Facebook account was one of the compromised–someone now has the answer to your security question at your bank.

The blog author isn’t a fan of security questions as he feels the answers can be obtained very easily.  He suggests not answering the security questions truthfully–but remember your answer in case the lie you told comes back to haunt you! 🙂

Yes, a hacker might have his/her work cut out for them accessing your bank account, answering your security question and coming up with your password but why give any one in this day and age any more leverage than necessary!!  As for me–I’m avoiding those Facebook surveys!