New online access bank questions

[markgm]

It seems like the new trend in accessing online bank accounts is to supply additional information which you'll later be asked to confirm at random. Does anyone else think that it's not a good idea for more of my personal information to be put into a database? No one really needs to know what my mother's middle name is or what town I grew up in. No where do they say what else this information may be used for.

 

[maximus maximus]

I like fluffy things.

/thread

 

[jhayx7]

Major League Baseball is watching you!

 

[hjo3]

I doubt your bank is really going to run around stealing your identity once they've gotten you to give up secret, valuable details like your mother's middle name and hometown. It only annoys me because sometimes the available questions aren't things I'm sure I could reliably answer the exact same way in the future -- "What's your favorite food?", "What's your favorite sports team?" etc. They should make this "added security" optional.

 

[JS80]

my favorite is "who is your favorite architect?" luckily, my dad is an architect.

 

[Linflas]

Originally posted by: JS80
my favorite is "who is your favorite architect?" luckily, my dad is an architect.

Howard Roark. 😉

 

[spidey07]

It's not a trend. It's a requirement from the federal government.

The HAVE to use two factor authentication. I think it's great.

 

[Indolent]

Originally posted by: hjo3
It only annoys me because sometimes the available questions aren't things I'm sure I could reliably answer the exact same way in the future -- "What's your favorite food?", "What's your favorite sports team?"

That's what gets me too. Sometimes there's a list of 6 questions like this. I just assume when they ask me that question I'm going to get it wrong. I guess the other option would be to answer every question with the exact same word.

 

[FoBoT]

Originally posted by: spidey07
It's not a trend. It's a requirement from the federal government.

The HAVE to use two factor authentication. I think it's great.

yes, the banks didn't make this up on their own, they had politicians helping

 

[Pepsi90919]

they don't care about your mother's middle name, they want her maiden name.

 

[FreshPrince]

Originally posted by: spidey07
It's not a trend. It's a requirement from the federal government.

The HAVE to use two factor authentication. I think it's great.

that's not two factor...any bank or financial institution thinking asking for a password and someone's favorite color is 2 factor autheitication needs to send their IT folks to training.

a factor =

1. something you know: password, the street you lived on, your mother's maiden name
2. something you are: finger print, iris scan
3. something you have: security token, bingo card

In order for the authentication to be 2 factor, they need to implement 2 different things from the above, not 2 of the same things.

me personally, I like 2 factor, 2 way authentication. this way, not only does the financial institution authenticate you and make sure you are who you say you are, but it also authenticates itself to the customer. Everyone implements multi-factor authentication to fight against Phishing and the only way to do that is with 2 way authentication.

they're headed in the right direction, but asking me for a password and my fav. high school teacher's name is the same thing as asking me for two different passwords, and that's not really secure at all.

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: markgm
It seems like the new trend in accessing online bank accounts is to supply additional information which you'll later be asked to confirm at random. Does anyone else think that it's not a good idea for more of my personal information to be put into a database? No one really needs to know what my mother's middle name is or what town I grew up in. No where do they say what else this information may be used for.

No. There was a law passed that requires them to do that, and I like that it is simpler and less expensive than the alternatives. I'd hate to have to carry around a SecurID card or a pad of random numbers for EACH account I want to be able to access away from my home computer.

I'm not sure what else you think they're going to use the information for... I don't particularly care if my bank knows my high school's mascot.

 

[Indolent]

Originally posted by: Pepsi90919
they don't care about your mother's middle name, they want her maiden name.

That question gets me all the time. I usually type the maiden name when they ask for middle name because I'm reading too fast and not paying attention.