To Tell the Truth

Not many of us want to give out our personal information to websites. I think, by now, we’re all a little gun shy when it comes to answering questions like these:

“What was the name of your first school?”

“Where did you mean your spouse?”

“What was your first phone number?”

“In what city did you get married?”

“What model was your first car?”

“Where was your grandmother’s maiden name?”

“Where was your father born?”

But sometimes when you sign up for an online account sometimes the site will ask you to provide answers to security questions that only you would know. And then down the road, you made need to provide the answers to your security questions to prove the person logging in to the site is really you.

Actually, though it’s a pain sometimes, it is really a good thing. It protects you. Not many hackers would know your grandmother’s maiden name was Ramsey. Or that your father was born in Bleakmold, Kansas.

If you have your user name and your password and the answer to your security question(s) at the ready, only you will be able to log into your account.

But s0metimes what happens is this:  There is always something inside of some of us that cast suspicion on these kinds of questions and we don’t really want to give out this kind of information. So, instead of saying your grandmother’s maiden name was Ramsey, you say it was Pocahontas. It’s really cute and clever, but what if a few months from now you want to log into your bank account and the bank, in its efforts to protect your account, asks you to answer your security question?  Are you going to remember you prevaricated when you submitted your answers to the security questions. Are you going to remember you said her maiden name was Pocahontas? Nah. You won’t remember. And if you don’t remember, you will have to endure a lot hassle trying to get access to your account.

So, whenever you’re signing up for an important account – like a credit card, bank, PayPal or other important accounts, always tell the truth when setting up an account. If you have to answer security questions, always answer them honestly. That way you won’t have to remember what you said.  Security questions are for your own good. Security questions make it harder for hackers, even those with stolen passwords,  to access your account(s).

Remember what Mark Twain said when setting up your online accounts and answering security questions… “If you always tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.”