I was getting a new service hooked up recently, and for the online portion I had to give an answer for a security question, in case I forget my password.

The question the guy asked was, "Who is your favorite author?" Immediately I said "Stephen King." He high-fived me and said that was his favorite author, too! (He was an awfully cool guy the whole time, but this sealed his coolness for me.)

We finished up the transaction and I headed out. I was telling a friend later that day about this cool guy Davin and I had met, and some of the funny things he'd said and how his favorite author was Stephen King, too. Then I realized, well duh! Stephen King is a tremendously popular author, probably a HUGE number of people would answer that. So, it's probably not the best security question for me to choose, since just by playing the statistics people would be likely to guess my answer.

And then, if the person trying to hack my account actually knew me, which would make it much easier for them to know stuff like my full name and address, it would be a complete no-brainer! I might as well take out billboards and full page ads in the paper offering up my social security number, and all my vital statistics.

So now, I need to call them back and either pick a different security question, or change my author to someone no one would guess but that I'd remember if I needed to. Any suggestions?

Labels: genius, stephen king