Your side You know security questions can either be asked to make or answer to provide online account an extra layer of protection? It turns out that they are not so secure after all.
According to a new survey from Google’s security actually the least secure way to access your account if you eg forget your password or get locked out, writes PC Mag.
Either because they are easy to remember and therefore easy for hackers to guess, or too difficult to remember, and thus facilitate users to forget. Some happy medium does not exist, writes TechCrunch.
READ ALSO: 13 password sins you should avoid
For many like pizza
WHERE ARE THE SECRET?: Google investigated how secret security really is.
The findings come after studying hundreds of millions of questions and answers from Google users who have restored their accounts writes Google in a blog post.
Not surprisingly, it turns out that the simple answers are the least secure, often because they often contain known or publicly available information.
If you guessing favorite food to an English speaking user, a hacker getting closer by guessing “pizza”; nearly 20 percent of Google users have this as their answer.
Question about people and places should not be so sure, and here also cultural differences play a role.
The question “What city were you born in?” Should be easier to guess right on fewer attempts with a Korean user compared with an English user, due to the concentration of Korean-speaking users in a few large cities (39 percent against 6.9 percent in ten attempts), according to the survey.
According to Google, many users have also the same false answers to supposedly safe questions like “What is your phone number” and “What is the number for the benefit program “. And since they are false, it becomes easier for hackers to crack.
READ ALSO: Yahoo launches password-free login
” Eh, what yellow elephant? “
There is also a problem that many do not remember the answers to security questions their simply because they are too difficult. Where your mother went to elementary school or library card number? Not so easy to get on the move, according to Google.
It got signed even recently experienced when I would get access to an old bank account, and I over the phone had to come up with an answer to “What is the name of the yellow elephant ? “. Several weeks later I still have not been able to determine the yellow elephant in question …
According to Google considered “What is your father’s middle name” to be less a safe question than “What was your the first number, “yet there were several who managed to remember the answer to the first mentioned; 76 percent versus 55 percent.
According to the survey was 40 percent of the English-speaking users in the US who could not remember their questions at all.
And the more questions, the harder it is to remember them – so when it matters little in the one of the answers are easy to guess.
READ ALSO: Google launches additional password protection
What is the solution?
According to Google it to avoid using security, at least as the only recovery option, nor use security codes via SMS or secondary email.
As a last resort safety queried be a solution, according to Google.
This applies however for those who create login solutions. For users it is important to make sure to keep account recovery information as fresh as possible. In other words, you throw the yellow elephant, it is time to renew your question.
ALSO READ: Is 123456 real world common password?
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