September 17

Security Risk: Mother's Maiden Name

I just read something in Bruce Schneier’s book, Beyond Fear. Its a little tidbit of info on the most common “security” used by credit card companies: your mother’s maiden name.

Bruce wrote that we should not use our mom’s name because identity thieves may be subscribers to online databases of genealogical data. This means the thief could get your mom’s maiden name and pretend to be you!