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A comment on Columnist asked researchers what they could find out from just his cell number. Parent comment

Re:Columnist asked researchers what they could find out from... by nothrabannosir on Thursday August 15, 2019 @09:41AM (#20705083)
Except OP just admitted to using this scheme on a public forum, so they are now essentially compromised.

It's security through obscurity, with a bonus that the people who use this technique can't seem to keep quiet about it so it's not even obscurity.

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Re:Columnist asked researchers what they could find out from... by nimblegorilla on Thursday August 15, 2019 @10:15AM (#20705375)
Security questions aren't really that secure anyway. A "real" hacker could just pretend to be helping out a friend after a debilitating accident and ask for everything to be reset.
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Re:Columnist asked researchers what they could find out from... by ggggtez on Thursday August 15, 2019 @10:32AM (#20705543)
Exactly, or the "crying baby/stressed out parent" example that made the rounds a few years ago. Hackers don't need to monitor every public comment you make, just trick 1 minimum wage call center worker for 5 minutes.
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Re:Columnist asked researchers what they could find out from... by worldsayshi on Thursday August 15, 2019 @10:59AM (#20705780)
The answer could be: "Don't allow answering anything but this exact sequence of words: " then followed by a string of words.
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Re:Columnist asked researchers what they could find out from... by paulryanrogers on Thursday August 15, 2019 @11:21AM (#20705980)
Perhaps we need a reset contact whom they can call to confirm with a real human.
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Re:Columnist asked researchers what they could find out from... by freeflight on Thursday August 15, 2019 @11:22AM (#20705997)
Like with nearly any topic on HN, an xkcd comic [0] comes to mind.

[0] https://xkcd.com/2176/

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