The Safest Way to Answer Security Questions
Many web sites prompt for "security questions" as an extra form of authentication, or password recovery. Here's the thing: many people answer them the wrong way, making it easy to gain access.
Typical security questions are things you would know, and presumably others would not...things like your first school, your kindergarten teacher, or your favorite color. Many people put these answers on Facebook, making it trivial to guess the answers.
A better, safer way to answer these questions is with a nonsensical answer.
Favorite color? Mars Rabbit.
Street name? Yellow.
Best friend? Salamader7.
It doesn't matter what the answers are. Simply enter text that only you would know. Good answers can't be guessed or found online.
Further improve security more by using different answers for different web sites. Put another way, once every corporation's database has your mother's maiden name in it, is it really that much of a secret?
March 2022
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