Strengthen Your Responses to Security Questions

Here’s a quick tip I learned along the way for making security questions more secure.

I’m sure you are familiar with the security questions some sites ask you to complete that supposedly improve security. It’s fairly well accepted that these questions can be easily guessed by some one who knows you well enough. My first pets name, my brothers middle name, the city where I met my spouse. All find-out-able through social engineering.

The tip: you don’t have to tell the truth when answering the security questions.

Come up with some nonsense answers. First pets name: ratchet_ag0g099. Brothers middle name: djudje24. And my husband and I met in 12rangerover@@.

You do, of course, have to remember the nonsense you put in there. You can set up a system of letter and numbers that you remember, or better yet use a password manager with autofill feature to keep track for you. Doing this lessens the chance that someone will be able to get through by guessing your secret responses by casually asking about your family history.

Is it still hackable? Yeah, but harder to hack. But it’s another deterrent you can use in the never-ending battle to protect the goods.

Stay safe out there!