"Lying makes me look suspicious": Users’ Perspectives and Analysis of Security Questions

Despite recommendations from security authorities, such as those of the US NIST, against the use of security questions for online authentication, these methods are still used for login and account recovery processes. Although research on security questions has a long history, key gaps remain, particularly regarding user perceptions and the requirements used by websites for selecting and answering security questions. In this paper, we address these gaps through a two-part study: (i) a user survey (N = 292) capturing insights from a diverse US sample, and (ii) an analysis of an extensive set of 26 security requirements across 73 websites, totaling 1913 security questions. Our findings reveal notable user misconceptions, such as users’ believing that websites already possess correct answers to personal security questions. Additionally, we identify widespread insecure practices, such as accepting single characters and allowing identical answers across multiple security questions. By addressing both user perceptions and website security requirements, we provide a comprehensive understanding of weaknesses in current security question practices and contribute to the ongoing discourse on strengthening authentication methods.