Dumb security questions
Yesterday, my ISP required me to choose two “security questions” from a drop-down list of dumb choices: the name of my first pet or my favorite book, movie, food, or place to visit.
Why dumb? First, these questions assume I don’t have an Evil Sibling who knows these things; the same is true, of course, of common questions such as where you were born and your mother’s maiden name.
Second, they are guessable. Type in The Bible” and “Harry Potter” as favorite book and you’ve probably covered 95% of Americans.
Third, I don’t have a favorite book, movie, food or place to visit. I don’t even have a favorite non-fiction book, sf novel or funny book. As for favorite places to visit, I had a really good time in Italy, but I also had a really good time in Leiden before that, and I don’t really know how to rank my sister’s house on Thanksgiving versus that place fifteen feet in front of the Monet water lilies in the basement of the Musée de l’Orangerie versus Heaven if the Lord is willing to overlook certain transgressions (which, by the way, are also some of my favorite places to visit).
So, here is a list of similarly dumb security questions, although they are dumb in a variety of ways:
If asked to list US states, which would you remember last?
Who is your sixth-favorite novelist?
What word does the final scene in “Madame Butterfly” bring to mind?
Where exactly did you get the most lost?
Name the teacher who had the least influence on you.
What is your preferred way of organizing items? (Note: Do not choose “alphabetically.”)
Who is your favorite child?
Guess a number from 1 to 1,000.
Elf is to wipes as happenstance is to ______.
if your house were on fire, what is the last thing you would remove from it?
What would be the trade-in value of your new car, you know, if you cleaned it up real good, got the empties out of the trunk, etc.?
Who is the next of your high school friends you are going to forget?
What is the answer to this question?
Categories: Uncategorized dw
