[TeMPOraL]

> If you can't - just generate a random password as the answer. "I_ty/:QWuCllV?'6ILs`O12kl;d0-`1" is an excellent name for your first dog / high school. Just don't forget to use a password manager to store these.

Be wary of social engineering attacks though.

- <support on the phone> I'd also need you to provide me an answer to your security question. What was your first dog's name?

- <me> Oh, you know, it's a long string of random characters I generated, I'd have to give them to you one by one...

- <support> (looks at the answer) uh, right. I see. Let's continue then.

[dexterdog]

I always fill all social engineering-vulnerable questions with nonsense, especially when it is a banking site. I like when they let you set the question yourself so you can put something like "Why would a secure financial institution allow such a horrible security hole in it's system?" To which the answer is Tyrolese4Tokyo_Beulah!Papuan.

[zifnab06]

I fill them with nonsense words unrelated to the question. Mother's maiden name? Fire truck. First car? Air conditioner.

If I have to call a company they always ask me why. The explanation is anyone who has me as a Facebook friend can figure out who my first girlfriend was, my maternal grandmother's first name, my mother's maiden name, where I was born, my first car, etc. And if every company has the same data, a data breach at one makes the entire system fall apart.

[beagle3]

Same here. But recently, United airlines changed their system to only allow selecting from a list (your favorite dog breed ? Choose 1 of 8. Your favorite movie genre? Choose one of 12). I picked a random set and wrote it in my password stash.

Seriously bad security practices.

[vacri]

And the answer is "because, by and large, it works just fine". Yes, people fall afoul of these kinds of questions, but the general public cannot handle proper security hygeine - and educating them takes so much effort on both sides, that your customers will just go elsewhere. Proper security procedures would also lock a great many more people out of their own accounts than would be lost to fraud. Can't satisfy security questions? Well, take the morning off work on Monday morning and bring in several forms of identification...

It's why ATM PIN codes are so short - it's easier for the bank to just reimburse losses in case of fraud than to properly/strictly control security access.

Any time I see someone talk about how dumb general banking security procedures are, it tells me that they've spent no time in tech support for the general public :)

[M_Grey]

Exactly, it's just another opportunity to password protect things.

[dkopi]

Great point. "correct horse battery staple" wouldn't be vulnerable to such an attack.

[i336_]

But it must be said that GPU evolution, and that password cracking software developers are naturally going to go where the passwords are, that this type of simple password design does NOT work anymore.

[jstanley]

How so? The point of a random-four-words password isn't that it won't be hit by existing brute force software, it's that it's easy to remember but impractical to brute force with any software - with a 60,000 word dictionary there are more than 2^63 possible passwords.

[Sophira]

That's true, but the whole point of the strip was that you use words that evoke an easily-memorable scene in your head.

That will probably mean you can confine your list to words that most people know, which reduces the search space significantly. "correct", "horse", 'battery" and "staple" are all very common words.

[anchpop]

The strip used a 2048 word dictionary. 2^44 is still far too many to brute force

[dexterdog]

Is it really an easily-memorable scene or has the strip just been referenced in every HN and reddit discussion about password security? There is no way I'm remembering some random story for an account I login to once a month. The point is to have a password that is easy to see in a password manager and then type on a different device. Seeing D8hsegfw_#7Ax42 and then trying to type it into a hidden password field is painful esp. on a phone. Seeing Dynamo-Stench3Player and typing it in is very doable.

[Ensorceled]

They are suggesting it for a security answer, especially one you give over the phone to tech support, NOT a password.

[kevhito]

Irrelevant. It works fine for passwords too. The security of "correct horse battery staple" method is (nearly) optimally resistant to GPU (or any other) brute force attack.

[i336_]

Oh, of course, right. Misinterpreted that bit.

[raverbashing]

Yes, having something readable (and "believable") is more useful and secure than having to rely on saying a random string

Just put "Plymouth Creek High"

(Not to mention the possibility that some "security genius" will ban special characters on those answers)

[CamelCaseName]

Generally what I do is put something tangentially related to the question.

For example, "What's the name of your high school?" would be answered with something like "Khan Academy" (the name of a site that helped me) or "Mr. Jefferson" (A teacher, or best friend)

[dhimes]

Mine was Rainy Purple Road. Then I get to educate the person on the phone to, in her personal life, never give the correct answer to anything googleable for a security answer. That usually involves a discussion of Sarah Palin...

[Drdrdrq]

That's why mine answers are "DO NOT ACCEPT THIS ANSWER!!! <long string of random chars>". Hopefully the support person will get the hint. :-/

[Sophira]

Unfortunately, if they don't or are forced by policy, then you've just told the Internet your security answers.

If I were you I'd edit that and reword it without specifics.

[Drdrdrq]

Thanks for your care, but there is a part that is random, and the wording is probably a bit different. I don't disclose passwords on the internet. :)

[SoreGums]

at least with one of my banks customer support centres this wouldn't happen, if you stumble for a split second they shut down the call and tell you to go into a branch to verify your identity, this is pretty annoying...

[TeMPOraL]

Good, they should be commended for the practice! I wish I could trust that all companies would do that, though.

(Anyway, I like the idea of using answers to security questions as hard passwords.)

[jeff_tyrrill]

That's terrible, because it makes using password managers impossible (while on your phone for example, or you simply don't have it open that instant because you didn't know when/if they would ask).