Don't Give Away Historic Details About Yourself (krebsonsecurity.com)

Brian Krebs: Social media sites are littered with seemingly innocuous little quizzes, games and surveys urging people to reminisce about specific topics, such as "What was your first job," or "What was your first car?" The problem with participating in these informal surveys is that in doing so you may be inadvertently giving away the answers to "secret questions" that can be used to unlock access to a host of your online identities and accounts. I'm willing to bet that a good percentage of regular readers here would never respond -- honestly or otherwise -- to such questionnaires (except perhaps to chide others for responding). But I thought it was worth mentioning because certain social networks -- particularly Facebook -- seem positively overrun with these data-harvesting schemes. What's more, I'm constantly asking friends and family members to stop participating in these quizzes and to stop urging their contacts to do the same.

On the surface, these simple questions may be little more than an attempt at online engagement by otherwise well-meaning companies and individuals. Nevertheless, your answers to these questions may live in perpetuity online, giving identity thieves and scammers ample ammunition to start gaining backdoor access to your various online accounts.

Comments

Alternative Questionnaires

[mentil]

What was your first banking password?
What was your first government-issued identification number?
What was your first online handle that you used before you learned that the things you do and post on the internet can be traced back to you?
What was your first humiliating, deviant, or illegal thought?
What was your first felony that you got away with?
What was your first object you dry humped?

Re:Honestly?

[taustin]

I know a guy who used to (and maybe still does) always answer all security questions with "never give guns to ducks."

That was one of the least weird things about him.