As a blog writer, I have to take extra care whenever important websites (banking, e-mail, etc) invite me to contribute a security question to reset my password. I’ve written about all facets of my life on this site so first pets and street addresses are anything but secret from the public. If I’m not vigilant than some malefactor could reset one of my passwords without my knowledge and create mayhem galore.
For this reason when given the option to write in my own security question, I dig deeply into the obscure to find truly creative questions. Sometimes, this method fails me miserably.
I present to you exhibit 1.
I set my security question as: “What is your Secure Password?”
Seriously? Why would I do that?
So stupid.
Maybe you should try a really hard riddle. That way if anyone did access your account, at least you’d know it was someone awesomely smart, and that he maybe deserved it.
This is a good idea.
Or maybe higher level math. Something like this.
(10 MikeDiDonato.com points for anyone who solves the math problem)
In case anybody out there needed to buy something from the Mike D. store, you can get 10 easy points:
http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=+integrate+x+%2F+%28x%2B49%29^%281%2F4%29
Ten points to Tyler for using the internet to void my problem.
You should use something more obscure that nobody else would know like “How many nipples do I (Mike D) have?” because nobody is going to guess 14.
As an aside, I just went through the archives trying to figure out exactly how many mikedidonato.com points people have.
In no particular order:
10 Tyler
50 Jocelyn
32 Patrick
37 Irene
27 Chris T
21 Shamus
19 Mike G
11 Sander
8 HC Alicia
5 Paul
86 JonAbad
43 Shaun McQuaid
I will be keeping better track of the numbers. When the MikeDiDonato.com store appears, you’ll be able to get great free stuff.
I really have Zero points?! wow….
I was surprised as well. If you find any reference to your winning some points in a previous post let me know. Otherwise, I expect an onslaught of effort next time points are available.
I have zero too, and I’m his girlfriend. Yeesh! What’s a girl have to do to get some points around here?!
What these companies really need to do is allow you to specify both the question and the answer. When they provide the questions “what town were you born in”, “what is your mother’s maiden name” one could easily find the answers using public facebook pages and classmates.com alone.
In fact, when debating what sort of authentication scheme the Encyclopedia of Life should use, this is exactly what we did to a coworker to demonstrate how unsafe these types of systems really are.
See that was the problem with my Fidelity account. The question I had defined was “what is your secure password?”
what a waste.
I have 32 points?
Wow. I’ve been stockpiling those for years. What did I ever do to earn those?
Sarah T, maybe we can barter. I give you points, and you give me a cookie? I don’t know how much a Mike D point is worth…
This may be a good plan. You are apparently good at points, and I am very good at cookies.
Maybe we can give Mike D cookies to win points?!
I’ll bake you a cake – how many points? Or perhaps a chocolate soufle? I’m never going to have a supremely witty comment, but man oh man I can bake!
URGENT:
Effective immediately, baked goods are worth lots of MikeDiDonato.com points.
Oh man. I’m going to try to get so many points.
You’re going to need to break this down for us, Mike D.
Cookies: ? points
Cupcakes: ? points
Cake: ? points
Cinnamon buns: 500 points
Pie: ? points
Tomato pie: 1000 points
Olive bread: -900 points