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Proton blog: Are security questions terrible for account security?

Are security questions terrible for account security? | Proton

https://proton.me/blog/security-questions-flaws-solutions

Explore the pitfalls of security questions and discover stronger alternatives to safeguard your online privacy.

Are security questions terrible for account security? | Proton

The answer is yes, and the TL;DR is not to use them, use 2FA, and not share personal details online (which is hopefully all obvious advice)

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/12060980

16 comments

Showroom7561

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When I'm asked for a security question, I let my password manager generate gibberish and use those as answers.

I can't honestly think of a less secure way to "secure" an account, than being asked questions that anyone you know would be able to answer with little effort.

birdcat

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no they are not, just another stupid article from proton. nothing stops you from saying that bwE0F^pHb5iPzMZiismyeiTIWh^oB*#V8SaD0F3R*SeH was your first pets name.

proton however stops you from disabling otp after setting up multiple security keys, they stop you from putting a pin on your drive app and they stop you from using an +4 digit pin on your mail app.

but yea, the potentially insecure thing they dont even offer is the biggest concernn here 🤦‍♀️

smeg

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Nothing stops us enthusiasts from doing that, this article is for a more casual user who might not realise how easy the real answers are for a hacker to discover

birdcat

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i mentionied the flaws i saw and are are being adresssed by the community since years without ever anything happening. so i just dont get the focus on a problem that does not even exist.

what will the next article be about? to dont write your password on a post it and stick it onto the screen?

tigerjerusalem

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Believe or not, these kind of articles unfortunately are necessary for the regular Joe.

summerof69

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Yes and that is a good advice. They don't write these articles to teach you something new, you're clearly not the target audience. Don't blame them for educating people.

rikudou

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I mean, I've seen a password on a post-it in our office, so yeah, maybe a good idea? We also have a company mandated Bitwarden and you wouldn't believe how many times I've seen people type a password by hand instead of using Bitwarden when I help them set up VPN or something. It's definitely upwards of 80%.

LemmyKnowsBest

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I really don't think anyone on the planet could figure out the name of my first pet. Even everyone in my family who would have known the answer to that question, they have all died. My first pet's name is a secret safe with me.

smeg

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Well that's good for you, but the point is that info is the kind of thing that someone might have casually posted online over the years

Hazzia

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Permanently Deleted

LemmyKnowsBest

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okay but first I want to tell you my mother's maiden name and the name of the first school I went to.

bionicjoey

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nothing stops you from saying that bwE0F^pHb5iPzMZiismyeiTIWh^oB*#V8SaD0F3R*SeH was your first pets name.

How will you remember that though? A lot of password managers don't make it easy to store security question responses alongside account credentials, and if you're using a security question, it might be because you lost access to those credentials anyway

Boozilla

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I put these answers in the "notes" section of Bitwarden. It's a little inconvenient, but it works.

bionicjoey

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It depends on if the purpose of the questions is for 2FA or account recovery. If the latter, you haven't really solved anything since if you lose one then you lose the other

smeg

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My personal view is that the extra security that these so-called security questions bring is worth less than the risks they bring. I'd rather the (low) risk of Bitwarden being compromised and losing the account than the (high) risk of someone searching or discovering information about me I can't change and losing the account.

summerof69

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no they are not, just another stupid article from proton. nothing stops you from saying that bwE0FpHb5iPzMZiismyeiTIWhoB*#V8SaD0F3R*SeH was your first pets name.

And how many regular people do that? Or does security apply only to advanced users?

WhoresonWells

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Once, I made an account for something that let me write my own security question and answer. I thought that was much better than the usual options and wrote something that cryptically referenced a difficult problem I once worked on. The answer could possibly be found online, but only to someone who properly understood the question. Later, when I needed to authenticate myself again, I got my security question. The answer isn't something you typically memorize, but I knew what the prompt meant and how to work it out so I did so.

But I was too slow. Apparently you had to answer within one minute. It took me about ten so it locked me out. Tech support helpfully reset my password after merely verifying my phone number and SSN which are probably known to thousands.