Dumb Challenge Questions

So, my place of employ­ment (a quick Google search should clear up the mys­tery) has just imple­mented chal­lenge ques­tions for their new pass­word retrieval sys­tem. Now, on top of auto-expiring our pass­words every six months (Grrr!), we are required to know the answers to odd ques­tions. This is becom­ing com­mon prac­tice every­where, so I guess there’s no get­ting away from it. But other places (like my bank) let me choose two ques­tions from a list of thirty or so. Not here. No, I must provide:

1. My favorite his­tor­i­cal figure.
2. My best friend in grade school.

No choices, those are the questions.

They do let you cre­ate your own chal­lenge ques­tions, too, but you must also fill out the two they require. So, while some of you may be able to nail down your favorite his­tor­i­cal fig­ure, and some of you may have kept in touch with some chum from when you were seven (and I expect the mis­be­got­ten pro­gram­mer who chose these two ques­tions can do both), I can’t, and I haven’t. Which means, I have to choose a his­tor­i­cal fig­ure, and des­ig­nate him or her as “likely to have been picked as my favorite”. Same with my grade school pal.

Of course, the obvi­ous answer for the his­tor­i­cal fig­ure is Jesus, and I would be will­ing to bet that a large major­ity of our white, Chris­t­ian com­mu­nity has cho­sen Jesus. For that mat­ter, the answer to the sec­ond ques­tion could read­ily be Jesus, too. Which led me to think about the two DIY chal­lenge ques­tions, and how I might make it eas­ier on myself if I should for­get my password…

1. My favorite his­tor­i­cal fig­ure: Jesus
2. My best friend in grade school: Jesus
3. The Son of God: Jesus
4. The answer to all these damn ques­tions: Jesus

Try it, you might get lucky.