While wandering around the interwebs this morning, I came across an interesting link to a relative’s family history. Actually, the facts were nothing new to me, as it was simply a list of the members of one branch of my family tree. But one thing was interesting: they listed my relatives’ mother’s maiden name.

I suppose that this information has been publicly available for quite some time. If you spent the afternoon digging around a courthouse or a public library, you could find court records, birth announcements, death announcements, and other blurbs in the local paper which often list a woman’s maiden name. But now, this information is instantly, easily accessible on a global scale. And it’s also the first time that any with less-than-scrupulous goals can perform web searches to find out your address, phone number, personal habits, and the uniqueness your name is – so that they know how many potential victims they’ll have to weed out before they can steal someone’s identity.

Although it appears to have been waning in popularity, some businesses and other institutions still use mother’s maiden name, birthdate, the road you grew up on, the as a means of verifying your identity, all of which are easily accessible to identity thieves or those trying to get your information for other reasons. Continue Reading