Do you think companies should stop using mothers maiden name as a security question

As others have said, it’s vastly too easy for bad actors to find [& use] said information; & it’s increasingly irrelevant due to cultural shifts.

For me, not giving the correct answer wouldn’t work & just thinking about it makes me profoundly uncomfortable. I understand the logic behind it, & I understand people aren’t doing it with ill-intent or to gain anything they have no right to - but it’s still lying. I like being able to make up my own question so it has unguessability but no moral conflict.

@creepywoman
Well no, because they never "see" me, and don't really need to know either my dob or my age.
The fewer databases it's in, the less danger there is of a security breech.

GeilistheWitch
These days I don't even give my real date of birth unless I really need to. I use my godaughter's day & month which happens to be a memorable combination (like 14/02: St Valentine's Day) and I take 10 years off my age to mess with their algorithms! It's never caused me a problem, but obviously I don't do it for banks etc.

Don’t these businesses get confused when they see a person 10 years older than what they claimed?

I assume she's using the fake DoB for tv channel sign ups, loyalty cards etc.
I do the same.

Another reason people might not want to give this is due to abuse. If you’ve cut contact with your parents or even changed your name yourself, you might not want to divulge triggering information

Don’t these businesses get confused when they see a person 10 years older than what they claimed?

I’ve an abusive ex who fraudulently took out loans in my name.

he knew my DOB and parent maiden name

Then what’s the point of asking for if that is your solution? Why not just ask for a memorable word?

These days I don't even give my real date of birth unless I really need to. I use my godaughter's day & month which happens to be a memorable combination (like 14/02: St Valentine's Day) and I take 10 years off my age to mess with their algorithms! It's never caused me a problem, but obviously I don't do it for banks etc.

I agree, I thought this the other day as I'm married but never changed my name. Very old fashioned.

But they don't though. The point of the question is to pick a name, that only you would really know, to identify you.
They're not actually going to check that it's ACTUALLY your mother's maiden name.
I've always used my dad's surname without issue.

I haven’t come across the mother’s maiden name for identification question in years. Everything is either two step identification. If I was expected to give my mother’s maiden name for identification purposes, I wouldn’t be particularly impressed and would question continuing with a organisation that were still implementing outdated security measures.

A woman I know had a real hassle with this at the bank. Her surname is her mother's maiden name - in fact, her father changed his surname to his wife's. She's not from the UK, so they assumed she didn't understand and kept telling her that they wanted her mother's maiden name, not hers.

It wouldn't occur to me to lie, because I associate this sort of question with official business (bank/government related).

YABU for not noticing that many, many companies have moved away from this already, and use a range of security questions

I've always used my beloved dad's surname for MMN. The word can be whatever you like 👍

Yeah, but DS is ND, and while I understand the purpose of the question, and I think he'll probably be ok with this, I can imagine not everyone is comfortable giving an answer that is in essence a lie. Lots of places give you a choice of questions now, which is much better.

It’s toe curling.

The expression ‘maiden name’ is awful, IMO, sexist and when you think of the connotations of ‘maiden’

It assumes that your mother was married, that she changed her name in marriage, and gave her children her married surname

It is not transferable across all cultures, and we are a multicultural society.

If I was obliged to fill this in in a compulsory field I would put ‘WhatBollocksIsThis’, but of course they won’t see it.

We thought about this recently when we had to reset an online account, our children don’t have a mum, so no mums surname to give.

Just put any name. None of the answers I give is ‘true’.

I always go for the maiden name of my first pet's mother. Double layer of security.

Security questions only have to be rememberable and don’t even have to be logical ( right word??). I’d never thought about that until someone told me their answer to the security question “what was your first car?”, was “banana”

Oh and NEVER answer the Porn Star Name questions online. First pet AND MMN.

It's a details phishing scam that just won't die. I use it at the beginning of cyber security training sessions as a lesson/ice breaker.

I grew up somewhere without street names etc. Most of the questions are really hard to answer without fixed conventional behaviour.

I had to work out who my best friend was in 2010 to get into an old bank account.

The purpose of the question isn't to get the right information though - it's to identify you.
YABU OP just pick some other relatives name. As you already do. So what's the problem?

My main objection is that if someone really wants to find out your MMN is really easy - the publicly available registers of births, marriages and deaths include this info.

I always go for first pet’s name, although I’ve never had a pet so I’ve just made a name up - good luck anyone guessing that.