Tuesday 17 April 2018

Your security questions are not secure and it’s YOUR OWN fault.

Yes...YOU...YOU are at fault.



(bizarrocomics.com)

We’ve all seen them. Those pesky security questions, preventing your on-line account being hacked. The problem is, most websites use the same questions and a lot of the time, the answers can be found on the different platforms you use.

You will sometimes give out this information for free on your Facebook/Twitter/Instagram like saying...”I really miss the first dog I had, we lost him last week. His name was Wuffy and he was a Great Dane. This is his picture...awwwww. sad face emoji.

(picture courtesy of  Puppy Toob)

Lots of your friends and family would also know the answers. All of your siblings and relatives will know you mother’s maiden name and by finding your mother on Facebook a hacker can find the information too. The most common “security” questions are:

·       What Is your favorite book?
·       What is the name of the road you grew up on?
·       What is your mother’s maiden name?
·       What was the name of your first/current/favorite pet?
·       What was the first company that you worked for?
·       Where did you meet your spouse?
·       Where did you go to high school/college?
·       What is your favorite food?
·       What city were you born in?
·       Where is your favorite place to vacation?

The best way to foil would-be hackers is to give an answer that is complete rubbish. And here’s a great tip, you don’t have to remember all the rubbish answers. Use the same rubbish answer for all the websites. (DO NOT use the same password though).

Just like a password, your answer should be strong, have UPPERCASE, lowercase, num4er5 and other charac?ers if allowed. So, work on it for a while and make it complicated. For example, I’m looking around my desk and I’m going to take a few letters of 5 items and throw in some numbers also...

Cr3!.au36xT5s9t_ipsC68/

Use a word like this for all you answers.

Anyway, that’s it, your FREE security advice for the week.

John The Captain Ryan

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