Re:Listen to a SIM-Jacking, Account-Stealing Ransom
by Terr_ on Thursday October 11, 2018 @05:12PM
(#18197073)
It frustrates me how almost every company's "secure question" system is utterly retarded and recklessly dangerous.
1. They draw from fixed unimaginative pools of often-overlapping questions, so that a breach in one company compromises you on multiple others.
2. Unlike a password, the actual secret question is often plaintext
If I had to design a replacement... The user would always be allowed to define custom questions, all questions could be assigned multiple synonymous correct answers (e.g. "Dr. Smith", "Doctor Smith"), and they all go through a one-way hash with salt.
1. They draw from fixed unimaginative pools of often-overlapping questions, so that a breach in one company compromises you on multiple others.
2. Unlike a password, the actual secret question is often plaintext
If I had to design a replacement... The user would always be allowed to define custom questions, all questions could be assigned multiple synonymous correct answers (e.g. "Dr. Smith", "Doctor Smith"), and they all go through a one-way hash with salt.