Password security questions are one of the ways a company may keep your account safe. If you’re asked to choose your password security questions from a long list of options, however, you might not be sure which ones will be the safest and most effective to choose. There are some questions, however, that might be the least safe. Here are seven password security questions that it’s a good idea to simply avoid.
1. Date of Birth
Your date of birth is not considered a piece of confidential information. It’s very easy to get information about your date of birth. You might have it public on your Facebook account. Even if you’ve only ever sent out one tweet or Instagram post about your birthday, that’s enough for someone to know your date of birth.
2. Astrological Sign
There are only 12 astrological signs, and it’s a problem for the same reason your date of birth is a problem. Even if you’ve never shared your date of birth publicly, there are only 12 possible answers, which means it’s an extremely easy thing to just guess.
3. Mother’s Maiden Name
Again, your mother’s maiden name isn’t considered a piece of confidential information. It’s part of public records, and all someone has to do is look you up on a public record search engine to be able to determine your mother’s maiden name.
4. Favorite Color
If you’re randomly asked what someone’s favorite color is in the United States, your best bet will be to answer “blue,” “green,” “purple,” “red,” or “black.” As a matter of fact, over 75% of people in the United States have one of those five colors as their favorite, which means that it’s an extremely easy way to guess this question’s answer.
5. Past Schools You’ve Attended
Whether it’s elementary schools, middle schools or high schools, you’ll likely want to avoid choosing a question that has to do with what schools you’ve attended in the past. It’s pretty easy to look up this information, though it’s easier to look up information on high schools than elementary or middle schools.
6. Your Favorite Sports Team
You’re probably regularly talking about your favorite sports team and why you enjoy it, especially if you really like sports. If you’re a sports fan, your social media is probably full of information about what sports teams you love, and that means choosing that information for a security question is probably not a great move.
7. The Place You Were Born
It’s possible to use this question if you don’t talk about it very much or if you were born in one place and grew up in another place. However, if you were born in the same place you grew up, or if you still live in the place you were born, this question becomes very easy to guess. You should avoid it if it’s something that would be easy to guess.
How To Keep Your Online Accounts Safer
When you’re thinking about password security questions, there are a few ways you can make sure your online accounts are a bit safer. Here are a few ways to make it easy for you to create password security questions.
- Write your own questions, if possible.
- Come up with spelling rules that you follow for all security questions, like replacing Os with 0s.
- Choose questions that you automatically know the answer to.
- Make sure the question doesn’t ask your current opinion, as your opinion is likely to change.
- Choose questions that are very specific.
Another thing you can do is make sure you know what pieces of information are publicly available. You can perform a people search on yourself with PeopleFinders to learn more about what information is out there so you can avoid using that information for security questions.
Conclusion
In general, there are a number of common password security questions—including the most well-known one, your mother’s maiden name—that you may want to pass on. These security questions tend to be easy to guess, making them not very secure at all. Make sure you avoid these questions and check up on yourself with PeopleFinders regularly for the best results.
Image Attribution: Vlad Chorniy – stock.adobe.com
