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Security questions often require you to share other bits of PII and they aren’t hashed or encrypted either. Why do I have to tell a stranger over the phone my
by ljm 3y ago
Security questions often require you to share other bits of PII and they aren’t hashed or encrypted either.
Why do I have to tell a stranger over the phone my mother’s maiden name to confirm I own the account? That’s not my info to share, it’s my mother’s.
- lolinder 3y ago> That’s not my info to share, it’s my mother’s. It's also, for many people, incredibly easy to find. People often keep their maiden names as a middle name, so if you can find someone's mother (relatively easy in the age of Facebook) it's not a far leap to figure it out from there. Even if they didn't keep their maiden name, finding it out is pretty simple by connecting the dots. It made a bit more sense in the era before a majority of people started posting their private lives on the internet. These days it's a security disaster. Thankfully, the increasing popularity of non-traditional naming arrangements will probably do away with it soon.