We need new security questions - obscurity is no defense in the long tail of social networking

Everyone knows that financial institutions are behind the times with technology and are way too paranoid to participate in social media. But it seems like they aren't paying enough attention to social media and the trend to publish more and more information publicly that use to be private.

If you're friends with someone on Facebook and LinkedIn and troll through their Twitter and Flickr feeds, you'll find that you can answer most of the typical "security questions" for financial institutions. They picked obscure questions such as, "What was the name of your first pet?" and "What street did you live on in your first house?" thinking that they would be difficult for someone other than you to figure out. But these days most of the questions are pretty easy to figure out for a social media sleuth.

This problem is just going to get bigger and bigger. With hundreds of millions of people using social networking it is clear that its not just a fad. The generation of tomorrow will grow up without many of inhibitions that we have about sharing information about ourselves publicly. Today your photos, your day to day activities and your relationships with others are available to the world through Facebook, Flickr, and Twitter. The trend is to share more not less, so what else will be shared tomorrow?

I think this is a real concern! This is ripe for abuse and needs to be addressed proactively by financial institutions before clever social media criminals expose this common vulnerability for rampant identity theft.

So what can you do to protect yourself? Lie. Come up with alternate answers to the common security questions such as "what is your home town?" and always use the fake answer that only you know (after all, you've always wanted to be from the Bronx, haven't you?). That way even your mom can't figure out your security questions. 

Comments

[moncler down]

Took me awhile to read all the comments.

[ClubPenguinCheats]

This should be food for thought for anyone that is tasked w/ protecting sensitive information.

[fake christian louboutin]

*An appreciation of learning, is a study in good faith.

[Cote']

These questions drive me crazy, and I used to work in online banking software.

[Jesse House]

Excellent offering, Josh. This should be food for thought for anyone that is tasked w/ protecting sensitive information.

We have long relied on ignorance or obscurity to limit approach vectors. With today's world becoming smaller and smaller, there must be enhanced measures taken to insulate ourselves from compromise.

Thanks for sharing.