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Re:Post a boarding pass on Facebook, get your account stolen by wila on Saturday September 23, 2017 @07:53AM (#15319326)
Not just easier, but actually more safe. The person on the phone isn't usually aware about your security "paranoia" and is being evaluated on how much customers he/she has been able to help.

As such most helpdesk employees will accept the answer "Oh I forgot, I do remember I put some random characters in there"... and your random password end up not helping you after all.

Re:Post a boarding pass on Facebook, get your account stolen by ubernostrum on Saturday September 23, 2017 @10:02AM (#15319760)
As noted in another comment, the attack on this of "oh I forgot, it's random characters" requires the attacker to know you do this. So if you do this, don't go disclosing it on public websites.
Re:Post a boarding pass on Facebook, get your account stolen by always_good on Saturday September 23, 2017 @11:15AM (#15320093)
>requires the attacker to know you do this

Nah, "well, it kinda looks like random characters" is information a support rep will give you.

Welcome to social engineering and info escalation.

Re:Post a boarding pass on Facebook, get your account stolen by ubernostrum on Saturday September 23, 2017 @02:08PM (#15320913)
If the support rep is just giving away enough info to figure this out, there is nothing you can do to protect yourself against the company's policies.
Re:Post a boarding pass on Facebook, get your account stolen by always_good on Saturday September 23, 2017 @05:27PM (#15321834)
Yes, which is why social engineering is going to get a whole lot worse before it gets better.
Re:Post a boarding pass on Facebook, get your account stolen by whiddershins on Saturday September 23, 2017 @10:21AM (#15319856)
As another commenter mentioned, a help desk rep once gave the clue "it's really weird" over the phone, which would easily indicate to an attack to try the mash the keyboard line.

The random character thing isn't great for this use, it seems, as a result.

Re:Post a boarding pass on Facebook, get your account stolen by ubernostrum on Saturday September 23, 2017 @02:08PM (#15320916)
If support reps give enough information away over the phone to let someone guess a security question, there is nothing you can do to protect yourself from them.