Your mother's maiden name
Arthur Chandler
arthurc at crl.com
Mon Nov 1 16:22:40 PST 1993
At least three places/organizations I do business with ask for this bit
of info as a "security check." The idea being, I think that you mother's
maiden name is something that only those intimately familiar with your
family would know, and therefore is an easy, universally applicable kind
of "password" to be used before handing out sensitive info.
But I've always wondered just how secure this "password" is. Recalling
Eric Hughes statement that "cryptography is all economics," and
realizing that someone with an unlimited budget could probably scrounge
that info after some effort -- just how much effort would it take? And
how secure is "mom's maiden name" as a password for obtaining sensitive
information over the phone?
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