# Why can't security questions be custom? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 4, 2006, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-security-questions-be-custom/367400 "2006-08-04T22:54:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2006, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-security-questions-be-custom/367400/1 "2006-08-04T22:54:37Z")
Just a little pet peeve o’ mine… When I first started using the Internet (basically as soon as I had functional motor skills and enough of a grasp on the concept of language to figure out what I was doing; I was an '86 baby and my parents had worked with computers for as long as they (comps) had been around), accounts that required the use of passwords came with a simple HTML form: Username \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ Password \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ Retype password \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ _Maybe_ they’d ask for you for your email address too, just to make sure. Maybe. Then some websites started getting smart about dumb people who lose their email addresses, and it became more like this: > [@web form](#): > > An \* ASTERICK denotes that a field is required. > > \*Username \_\_\_\_\_\_\_ > \*Password \_\_\_\_\_\_\_ > \*Retype password \_\_\_\_\_\_ > \*Email address \_\_\_\_\_\_\_ > > OPTIONAL OPTIONAL DON’T WORRY YOU DON’T HAVE TO DO IT TOTALLY OPTIONAL AND NOT REQUIRED: Please choose a security question from the dropdown menu for added security. > > TOTALLY TOTALLY OPTIONAL WE REALLY DON’T CARE IF YOU DO IT REALLY: Please enter an answer to this question so we know you’re you when you lose your password. Now, every single thing you sign up for looks more like this: > [@modern web form](#): > > First name \_\_\_\_\_\_\_ > Last name \_\_\_\_\_\_\_ > First name again \_\_\_\_\_ > Middle initial \_\_\_\_\_\_ > Favorite nickname \_\_\_\_\_\_ > Least favorite nickname \_\_\_\_\_\_ > Why? \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ > > Date of birth \_\_\_\_\_\_\_ > Date when virginity lost \_\_\_\_\_\_ > Gender \_\_\_\_\_\_ > Mother’s maiden name \_\_\_\_\_\_\_ > Social security number \_\_\_\_\_\_\_ > First language (choose from dropdown menu) > Second language (choose from dropdown menu) > Preferred language (choose from dropdown menu) > Least favorite language (choose from dropdown menu) > > What is your favorite color? (choose from dropdown menu) > What is your favorite lunch meat? (choose from dropdown menu) > > At 12:33 PM GMT, two trains leave Vancouver, one half train leaves Seattle, and one train leaves Miami. All trains are headed for Cleveland. At least one train is loaded with pencils. What the hell are those pencils going to Cleveland for? \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ > > How did you find this site? (choose from dropdown menu) > How did he find this site? (choose from dropdown menu) > And how did _she_ find this site? (choose from dropdown menu) > > Please choose eighteen of the following 374 topics for us and our friends to spam you about relentlessly. (374 checkboxes) > > You’re dumb and you’ll probably write your username and password on a newspaper and then throw the newspaper away the next morning, or feed it to your dog. So we need you to pick a security question from this drop-down menu. > > > [@Drop-down menu](#): > > > > What is your name? > > What was the make, model, color and interior of your first car? > > What is your mother’s name? > > What was the first job you held? > > What is your favorite sports team? WHY, when I already feel like Moses in the 40th year wandering the desert, do I have to pick a really bad and insecure security question? Holy crap. Everybody I know knows my name, everybody knows what my first car is/was (since I currently drive it and it stands out–it’s red and has out-of-state plates), my entire family and a lot of people I know know my mother’s name, and I’m currently looking for my first job, thankyouverymuch, unless I put in “US Armed Forces” which anyone could easily guess (throw that in, then try McDonald’s, then try Burger King, and if you haven’t gotten someones’s password yet you’re just having an unlucky day). Anybody who follows major American sports–or has an Internet connection they can use to look up team lists on espn.com–and knows where I live can get my favorite sports team in two guesses. WhyTF can’t I pick my own security question? Why can’t I make something up? I want to HAVE a security question, because I do forget passwords sometimes, so I don’t want to just slam random keys and make a gibberish answer no one will guess like I used to. But I can’t use any of your dumb questions and then remember the answer when I’ve forgotten my password. Grr. Yes, I know, some websites do let you use a custom question. But it seems to be 50-50 _at best_, and really all websites should let you do it anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Il\_Palazzo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Lord\_Il\_Palazzo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Il_Palazzo)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2006, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-security-questions-be-custom/367400/2 "2006-08-04T23:05:13Z")
You could always enter some other answer rather than the one they’re looking for. What is your name? - What’s yours? What was the first job you held? - Bagpipe Salesman Something witty or silly that you’d remember without being obvious to anyone but yourself. Personally, I’m allways appreciative when they let me enter my own security question and answer. I can come up with some random things that are much harder to guess. ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2006, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-security-questions-be-custom/367400/3 "2006-08-04T23:12:29Z")
The thing is, I can’t remember it if it’s not true. Then it’s just like remembering my password. If I could remember my password, I wouldn’t have the problem in the first place. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2006, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-security-questions-be-custom/367400/4 "2006-08-05T00:02:58Z")
The security questions are many times something sombody could find out from guessing, looking up your mothers name, or having access to a different site with the same questions. I never put anything correct in the blanks. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2006, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-security-questions-be-custom/367400/5 "2006-08-05T00:10:25Z")
Hah. you forgot one of the loops we are increasingly made to jump through: [QUOTE=modern webform] See this box below? The one with the random jumble of pixels in it? It \*almost looks like there’s text in there, doesn’t it? Guess what? There _ **is** _ text in there. Type the text into the box alongside the graphic. That vertical line could be an L or it might be part of the noise, and, tee hee, the B’s sort of look like 8’s, don’t they? maybe they are! And the Q; it’s actually a distorted G… probably [/quote] ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2006, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-security-questions-be-custom/367400/6 "2006-08-05T00:17:48Z")
The ironic part is that the same websites that employ graphics that slay the colorblind along with spambots, are happy to spam you endlessly regarding whatever eighteen of the 374 topics you had to pick. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2006, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-security-questions-be-custom/367400/7 "2006-08-05T01:54:59Z")
[QUOTE=Mangetout] Hah. you forgot one of the loops we are increasingly made to jump through: [/QUOTE] That’s a sore point with me too. I can’t read the things about 25% of the time. It’s not on topic, but is about something anoying withe software. There are boxes out there that have the requirements printed in type that fits 8 rows in half an inch. Someone obviously shrunk down an already shrunk down software box design.