How to Choose and Answer Security Questions

To help you keep your online accounts safe, most web and cloud services have you answer a number of security questions. You are asked a few things that you know, and that you can remember–such as your first pet’s name, or your mother’s maiden name–so you can access your account and prove your identity, if you forget or lose your password.

Yet sometimes these security questions are too simple, and the answers you provide may be things that people can find out about you far too easily in a web search or on social media. You may tweet a photo of your first dog, and mention that his name was Rex. You may post on Facebook that you met your second grade teacher, Mrs. Harrison. And your mother’s maiden name may be so widely used that anyone who hacks into a large database of user information could find it.

Fortunately, there are ways to get around this. This post explains how to choose the best security questions you should answer, and how to securely answer them so no one can figure them out.

Read the rest of the article on the Mac Security Blog.