Why You Should Lie About Your Personal Information Online
These days, every new online acｃount a website prompts you to create feels like an open invitation for identity theft. Even if you use a password manager (and you should), plenty of companies want more than just your email address—you’ll need to save your credit card information, your address, and more. Under the guise of keeping that data secure, many sites will prompt you to enter personal information like your birthday and answers to standard security questions like “What is your mother’s maiden name?” But if you really want to keep your data secure, you shouldn’t tell them.
We recently came across some great advice from Jack Smith IV at Mic: When a website asks you for answers to security questions, you should lie. Virtually the same security questions are posed by sites all across the web, whether you’re trying to get into your favorite online shopping retailer or something more important, like your iCloud acｃount. If hackers end up with the identifying information you input into one site, chances are they can get into a whole lot more than just your Twitter acｃount. Information like your mother’s maiden name, your first street address, or the name of your high school are also used by banks and the IRS.
In 2015, hackers attacking the IRS compromised more than 700,000 households, in part because they were really good at guessing the answers to people’s security questions based on personal information they had already stolen. That same year, Google found that hackers have a surprisingly high probability of correctly answering security questions that are more subjective, like “What is your favorite food?” or “Who was your first teacher?”
Lying, of course, won’t protect you from all cyber attacks, but doing so will at least reduce the amount of real information available for hackers to steal. Facebook doesn’t need to know your real birthday—that’s just a way for them to target advertising—and just about anyone could find your mother’s maiden name online.
If you want to be able to get back into your acｃounts using security questions (if two-factor authentication isn’t an option), you will need to remember the answers you give, though. The beauty of security questions is that they’re designed to be information you cannot forget. You might want to write your false answers down somewhere or use the same answers for a select number of acｃounts. Just maybe don’t use the same answers for your Facebook acｃount as for your bank acｃount, and be sure to double check which acｃounts need real information (the IRS, for instance).
Article Source: http://mentalfloss.com/article/92465/why-you-should-lie-about-your-personal-information-online
Image Source: http://images.mentalfloss.com/sites/default/files/styles/article_640x430/public/istock-457790187.png
VOCABULARY WORDS:
1. Prompt (v.) ~ (of an event or fact) cause or bring about (an action or feeling)
2. Guise (n.) ~ an external form, appearance, or manner of presentation, typically concealing the true nature of something
3. Hacker (n.) ~ any highly skilled computer expert capable of breaking into computer systems and networks using bugs and exploits
4. False (adj.) ~ not according with truth or fact incorrect
5. Instance (n.) ~ an example or single occurrence of something
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION:
1. According to the article, we should provide false answers on security questions requiring personal information. What is the reason for that?
2. Do you agree with the suggestion? What do you think are the risks of providing false data on security information?
3. Do you think there is a fool-proof way of protecting your personal information online? Give some suggestions.
