Its Okay to Lie…About Security Questions

I was recently extremely bothered when I was in a bank, setting up a new account. The well intending bank employee that was helping me set up my account asked me for my mother’s maiden name. I paused, then asked the reason. “To help prove that its you if you forget your password” was the answer that I knew before it was even given. I replied with “Elephant Balloon”, which got quite the shocked look from the employee. “That’s not her maiden name, right?” she asked incredulous. “No its not,” I said, “but my mother’s maiden name is shockingly easy to look up online.” I went on to explain how I don’t reply with true answers to such questions for that very fact. She told me that the script or questions they ask are from a time when the internet couldn’t give you such information within seconds (which also concerned me a bit that she referenced a time before the internet seeing how its been in active use by most people for going on 25 years or so).

Honestly, I don’t blame them. It makes sense. Banks and other organizations need to create ways for you to get back into your account, so in turn they need to have some interface for you to prove that you are you. So while we so want to be able to trust these places to keep our information safe, a big portion of that responsibility is on us.

Here’s what to do: lie. Lie like your financial and personal safety depends upon it.

What was your favorite pet’s name? (This can often be found through your Facebook)
Security Answer: Xbox 360

What’s the name of the street you grew up on? (WhitePages.com or a similar site often has every address you’ve ever lived on)
Security Answer: Lisa Frank Trapper Keeper

While providing made-up answers to these security questions does help protect your accounts, they are of little use to you if you don’t have a way to keep track of the answers.

Like any good lie, you have to keep track of it if its going to work.

Whats the best way to keep track of it? Your ever-helpful password manager (honestly I feel like most of my articles will involve me just suggesting in different ways to get and use a password manager).

Password managers (I personally recommend Lastpass — its free for all the main features, and affordable to upgrade) these days do so much more than just manage your passwords. They can hold all of your credit cards, your social security numbers, reward program information, passwords, backup keys, and yes, security question answers.

Often times the answers are just absolutely made up on the spot. They are often things that are in my immediate view as I move my eyes: Grande Nitro Salted Creme Cold Brew, Broken Fax Machine, Angry Coworker. Really doesn’t matter what it is as long as its not the true answer.

This information then gets saved in the password manager in the Notes section of the login that I’m creating. Everything goes in all at once, so everything is nice and tidy. I have a one stop location for every bit of information I need to manage this specific account.

One bit of warning though: don’t make anything your answer to a security question that you would feel uncomfortable saying or spelling out to a call-center representative. Nothing could be more uncomfortable than spelling out Farty McFartFace over the phone to a laughing rep who just asked your father’s middle name.

Stay safe out there.