On Facebook, it's common for people to spread-around little memes with the general format of "I'm interested in learning more about you; please answer these 25 random questions, then tag me back and fwd to 25 of your friends" or similar.
I recently filled out one of those "50 things about you" notes, and tagged some friends. Pam made an interesting observation (in jest?) that got me to thinking.
Have you ever noticed that EVERY SINGLE ONE of those "X random things about you" notes contains at least one of the following questions:
* From what high school did you graduate?
* What was your first pet's name?
* Where were you born?
* What was your first car?
* What was your first boyfriend/girlfriend's name?
* What is your maternal Grandmother's name? (Another way of asking "What is your mother's maiden name?")
* What is your social-security number?
* What is your bank account number?
* What is your PIN?
So *NOW* the question is: who's starting all these little quizzes hoping to scrape together enough information to log into some other site, tell it that I/they forgot my password, and get them to mail it out again?
Of course, they'll mail the password reset to ME. But still, email is hardly secure. Or maybe it's the FBI (CIA?) that's always trying to get me to gather tidbit information on my friends so they can complete their profiles of all us renegade guerilla anarchist trouble-makers.
...Or maybe it's just someone out to show everyone (a la Live Free Or Die Hard) that the only REAL security is PHYSICAL security and, if someone else has your data -- encrypted, password protected, locked in a vault or what have you -- then it's not secure.
...Or maybe we're all just paranoid.
...But with good reason! ;)
Anyway, I thought it an interesting train of thought, and maybe you will, too.
