Oh, I know, TB. At my law firm I had 5 different passwords, and they were all the same. The IT guy said "oh, that's not safe" I said "I'm not going to remember five passwords. Either they are all the same, or I write them down. You tell me which is less secure" In an office, writing stuff down is much less secure.

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No one is going to fucking remember three questions for your system plus a pin number and password, plus similar requirements for all their other things.

At least your Mom probably has answers for many of them, since I find that often half relate to your spouse or children. I'm single with no pets--very few even make sense for me. Also, favorite novel, movie, etc.? That changes all the time.

My password for questions like that? Password.

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Oh my, here is me jumping on that bandwagon! The work credit card requires you to change the password once a month. I typically access the site once a month. So every time I access it, I need to change my password. Ugg.

At least your Mom probably has answers for many of them, since I find that often half relate to your spouse or children. I'm single with no pets--very few even make sense for me. Also, favorite novel, movie, etc.? That changes all the time.

Yes! Of course, favorite sports team is one of the questions. Not much of a secret there from co-workers. Maybe some outside hack, sure. But ya, CRAZY!

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Also, favorite novel, movie, etc.? That changes all the time.

Those are the ones that bug me the most - the straight factuals I still have to remember if I abbreviated or used a long full name or something, but the subjective questions there's just no way in hell.

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the straight factuals I still have to remember if I abbreviated or used a long full name or something

Yeah, my grandmother was Antoinette Louise, but she went by Louise, and my mother was Louise Françoise, but went by Françoise. When they ask for first name, I never remember which one I actually used.

Mostly, I think I have good basic passwords, increasing in level of difficulty depending on the type of site, with financial stuff being the most complicated, why should I be forced to use those questions as well?

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When they ask for paternal parent information, I just laugh and laugh and laugh. And then make something up!

(didya know Atticus Finch fathered me??)

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The sad thing is that everything we are saying is basic security theory. Most textbooks on the subject say something along the following lines: if your security system is an obstacle to users doing their job or using the service they logged on for, then it will be treated like any other obstacle and worked around, run over, or (if possible) ignored.

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Making answers up is safer for security questions anyway - every time some celebrity's email account gets hacked, it's because someone looked up the name of their pet or their highschool on Wikipedia.

There is one system we use at work which requires a password change every month, and your password can't be anything you've used in the past 24 password changes. I access this system approximately three or four times a year, and so my password is on a post-it taped to my desk. (In my defense, this system has the built-in security feature of being next to impossible to use. It is almost universally referred to by the staff as "that stupid piece of shit.")

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Making answers up is safer for security questions anyway

But don't you run a higher risk of forgetting the falsehoods?

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But don't you run a higher risk of forgetting the falsehoods?

I think the idea is to have a fake answer completely unrelated to the question so you can remember it but it would be difficult to guess. Basically a second password.

Where did you go to high school? Lemon tree

What's the name of your favorite book? Lemon tree

etc etc

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