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

[notedbiscuits]

This is why I believe companies should stop using MMN as security

. Your siblings - including half siblings who you share the same mother have the same MMN
. If your mother has sisters and they have children too - they also share the same MMN
. Mothers who split up with their child(ren)'s father or decide they have nothing to with the child(ren)'s father(s) usually have the same surname as the mum if the mum wants to revert back to her maiden name (if got married) and kids get surname to match their mum's - their MMN is their surname!
. Anyone can go on free websites or have a free trial to find birth registers and if you know the quarter their births are registered - can find MMN with ease.

For companies that insist on a MMN - I use a family surname which is none of the MMNs of my parents or grandparents.

It’s rather old school to use it. Use any word that you can remember, it doesn’t have to be the actual name.

I’ve never used my correct maiden name. I just thought of a name and use that.

My mother wasn't married to my father, so I have her surname.

She did then marry my stepdad, but didn't change her name on marriage.

So her maiden name is the same as my surname anyway!

You said yourself, OP, you don’t have to use the real one. It’s entirely in your control.

My last name is the same as my mother's maiden name. I always use my mother in laws maiden name but you could use any name as long as you can remember what you've used.

Many places offer alternatives, but it will probably need to fade out as many will have mothers that didn't marry / change their name.

I still have my "maiden" name, and so I'm going to explain the whole MMN thing to my children and suggest they pick another family surname and stick to it. One of them doesn't have a great memory, so that's going to be a challenge for him. It's also a bit weird because if you're signing up to something you're literally giving false information.

Use a best friend's surname.

Surely, as the practice of a woman taking on her husband's name becomes less common, it will die out?

It needs to be a word you can remember maybe 2 or 3 years later, and doesn't change with time. Our business had to be registered with the FCA and the security questions were 'What is your favourite film' and 'What is your favourite book?' We only went on their website once a year, so as I couldn't name a favourite film or book, it is something that changes. So a year later, the only way to remember was to write it down, which ruins the security.

Completely agree. I like it when you can write your own security question.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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”

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

People automatically pick their MMN

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

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).