Are you being data mined?

Be careful answering social media posts such as pet names, first car driven, and facts that may lead to your full date of birth! These may seem fun and harmless but may be data mining for answers to secret questions which may be used to compromise your accounts via password resets.

I see this every day, and not all are obvious; however, combined with many other questions, may direct someone to the common security questions.

A professional interviewer will ask you a series of unrelated harmless questions in order to put you at ease, and assess your reaction to questions you have no reason to lie about; then they will hit you with the odd question they really want an answer too, but may randomly throw them in so it does not appear obvious.

Many of the questions asked in these social media surveys are directly related to some of the common access/password reset questions, and others are indirect; when combined with other questions and information, this can lead a professional to what they need to know to access your account.

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Accountant by day... Superhero by night!

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