On 11/19/2019 2:53 PM, Chris wrote:
Ken Springer wrote:
On 11/19/19 4:14 AM, Chris wrote:
Ken Springer wrote:
On 11/18/19 10:42 AM, Chris wrote:
Ken Springer wrote:
On 11/15/19 10:26 AM, Chris wrote:
On 15/11/2019 09:44, Ken Springer wrote:
On 11/15/19 1:40 AM, Chris wrote:
Ken Springer wrote:
On 11/14/19 7:51 AM, Chris wrote:
On 14/11/2019 14:36, Ken Springer wrote:
On 11/14/19 2:33 AM, Chris wrote:

snip?

You were asking for general suggestions on how to do something. What i and
others have suggested would work for most people. What you choose is
irrelevant.

With all due respect, Chris, I was not asking how to do something in
general. I was asking how others handled answering questions that are
obviously personal choices of a system's user/owner.

Hence the suggestion of password managers. See below.

snip


Talk to Pacific gas. I think they'd disagree.

I'm not so sure the decisions made have been left totally to PG&E and
others. I've seen news reports stating that some laws in California are
structured to force PG&E and others into doing things so that renewable
energy is more "enticing" to the customer who looks at the cost

Sometimes, I just don't understand people. PG&E, and I suspect other
companies, turn off electricity in an area so a wildfire isn't caused by
their equipment, potentially saving homes, and people complain.

When their lack of investment in resilience and maintenance is responsible
for causing catastrophic fires and they still refuse to fix things then
people are entitled to complain.

Proper regulation wouldn't allow this.


A fault in the overhead line is easy to fix, but relatively likely. The
buried cable is less likely be damaged, but expensive to fix.

True, viewed in money only. Now much money do you put on the value of a
human life?

Er, we're talking about phone lines. Where's the relevance?

Doing it the "cheap" way potentially puts more people's lives at risk,
due to increased possibility of no means for emergency notifications.

That's a bit of a reach.

snip

Anything can be lost... Virtually anything.

True, but a single, small device is far more likely to be lost than a
duplicated, backed up online file.

True, if you're willing to put your data in the hands of someone else.
In my case, I prefer to keep all my data in my hands, not someone
else's. If I lose something, I bear 100% of the responsibility, no one
else to accuse or wonder about. And I'm willing to accept that
responsibility.

Obviously, an individual has no control over data stored by others.
Since I have no control over that data, I don't worry about it.

Obviously you don't know how password managers work.

I have complete control over my passwords. I'm not beholden to anything and
i can choose how my passwords are used and synced.


If
you have the answers for those security questions before setting up a
system, you don't need a spreadsheet or password manager.

How will you remember the answers when you need to recover your password,
then? Needing password recovery is not a common situation so forgetting the
recovery answers is a very real prospect.

My original questions had to do with the OS installation, not passwords
to individual's accounts at a bank, school, etc. The security questions
are all personal, such as "What's your mother's maiden name?", and if
you can't remember those answers, maybe you should crush the computer
with a bulldozer. G

You should never answer those questions truthfully.


That's not bad advice, *if* you can remember the made-up answers. For
many people, that wouldn't work. The reason for such questions is that
most of us can easily remember the answers to them.

My memory s terrible. I always answer those questions truthfully.


They're simply
challenge response questions. There's no need for the third party to know
such personal information, especially if the questions are common to
multiple sites.

What happens when site A is comprised and site B has very similar
questions?
https://www.wired.com/2016/09/time-k...-answer-lies/#

Plus, some questions may have vague answers or are impossible to answer.
Favourite colour? Not sure. First foreign country you visited? Also not
sure. First car? Never had one. Your mother's maiden name? Which mother?
Etc.



I can answer all of the questions you cite without a problem. But not
everyone can. That's why you usually get a choice of questions. Don't
have a favorite color? Don't choose that question. And so on.


--
Ken