I know one website (can't remeber which) that let's the person devise her _own_ question and then give the response to it.  There is just a blank space after the prompt "security question" and a space after "answer to security question".  I have no idea what the technology calls for here, but that strategy would circumvent assumptions altogether.


--- On Tue, 5/20/08, [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> From: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: APA Login Screen
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Date: Tuesday, May 20, 2008, 4:33 PM
> On various websites where I've had to create a security
> question and
> answer, I've come across these acceptable suggestions:
> "What was the name
> of your first pet?", "What is the name of your
> favorite restaurant?"
> 
> Marilyn
> 
> 
> > Uh, problem with "high school mascot".  Mine
> was (Native American)
> > "Warriors".  Undergrad school was
> worse--"Indians".  I don't want to
> > be identified with that kind of racism anywhere.  N.
> >
> >>>> Azzurra Crispino
> <[log in to unmask]> 5/19/2008 11:44 PM
> >>>
> > Dear FEAST,
> >
> > I wrote to David Schrader, and this is what he had to
> say.  I'm sure
> >
> > he won't mind my forwarding it to you:
> >
> >> Thank you for your note.  Some conversation on
> this has already
> >> been forwarded to me.  Right now the issue of
> security question is
> >
> >> arising in the context of our changeover to our
> new on-line
> >> system.  As I have been told by staff, the
> ?mother?s maiden
> > name?
> >> question has been in use for years and is thus the
> one in our
> >> current membership database.  Once the new system
> is fully up and
> >
> >> running Nikki Szymanski, our Computing
> Coordinator, will work with
> >
> >> Janet Sample, our Membership Coordinator, to
> rectify this issue.  I
> >
> >> surely appreciate your concerns, most immediately
> as a security
> >> concern as you have noted.  We will plan to move
> to other forms of
> >
> >> security question, while recognizing that we have
> no choice but to
> >
> >> work from the current membership database as a
> starting point.
> >> Please bear with us in this process as we work to
> make the
> >> necessary changes in our system.
> >>
> >
> > I'm glad to see that people are asking
> fathers' first names, but I
> > can see how that might be... awkward in some
> situations.  I like High
> >
> > School mascot as a security question, personally.
> >
> > Cheers,
> >
> > Azzurra
> >