Configure Security Questions

Security Questions authentication policies support authentication of the user by validating responses to defined security questions, such as the user’s mother’s maiden name, a personally notable date, or the make of the user’s first car.

  • When you create a security question prompt, it is added to the security questions prompt group (that is, a set of the relevant prompts).
  • When you set up a Security Questions authentication record for a user, you enter responses provided by the user to the Security Questions to a required number of prompts from this group.
  • When the user subsequently attempts to authenticate using that authentication record, only the prompts for which the user has provided Security Question are presented.

There is no constraint on the number of prompts that you can specify in the prompt group for a specific Security Question authentication policy.

You configure security questions using the ActivID Management Console.

Important: Security questions cannot be deleted once they are created.

The ActivID Appliance base dataset contains predefined security questions.

Code Name Prompt
PR_1ST_JOB First job town In what town was your first job?
PR_ANIMAL First stuffed animal Name of your first stuffed animal?
PR_BR_BDAY Youngest brother's birthday Your youngest brother's birthday
PR_CAR_CLR Color of your first car Color of your first car
PR_CHILD Middle name of your youngest child Middle name of your youngest child
PR_E_SCHL Elementary / primary school name Name of your elementary/primary school?
PR_FRIEND Favorite childhood friend Name of your favorite childhood friend
PR_LICENCE Driver's license number Last 5 digits of your driver's license number
PR_MEET City you met your spouse City you met your spouse/significant other
PR_MEMPHR Memorable phrase Enter a memorable phrase (greater than 12 chars)
PR_MEMWRD Memorable word Enter a memorable word (greater than 8 chars)
PR_NICK Childhood nickname Childhood nickname
PR_PHONE Childhood phone number Childhood ph num including area code
PR_PLACE Nearest sibling's place Where does your nearest sibling live
PR_SECRET Street number of the house Street number of the house you grew up in
PR_SIBLING Oldest sibling's middle name Your oldest sibling's middle name
PR_TOWN Mother and father's town City or town did your mother and father meet

Create a Security Question

Prerequisites: To create a new security question, you must be assigned the Create security question permission.

  1. Log on to the ActivID Management Console as an ActivID Administrator.

  2. Select the Configuration tab and, under Policies, select Authentication and then Security Questions.

    3. All existing security questions are listed in a paged table. The total number of questions is given in the lower left corner.

    Each row corresponds to a Security Question. It provides the following information in the different columns:

    • Code – the unique code identifying the security question.
    • Name – the name of the security question.
    • Prompt – the label used for the security question when prompted to the final user.

  3. Click Add to launch the Security Question creation page.

  4. Enter the main information for the Security Question:

    • Name – should be unique for ease of administration.
    • Code – a value is automatically generated but it can be changed. The code must be unique, a minimum of three characters, and a maximum of 10 characters. It cannot be changed once the security question is created.
    • Prompt – content is free-format.

  5. In the Answers Creation Constraints section, define the constraints enforced when an answer is created:

    Constraint Description

    No constraint

    All characters allowed.

    Only numeric

    Only numbers allowed, no punctuation, no characters, and no spaces.

    Only alphabetic

    Only letters allowed, no punctuation, no numbers, and no spaces.

    Numeric OR alphabetic

    Combination of letters and numbers allowed, no punctuation, and no spaces.

    Numeric AND alphabetic

    Must have a combination of letters and numbers, no punctuation, and no spaces.
    Constraint Description

    Min length

    Minimum number of characters for the answer.

    Max length

    Maximum number of characters for the answer.
    Constraint Description

    Forbidden values

    For answer must not contain the user's username or be a user attribute. Answers are compared against the user attribute values specified for that user.

    Note: User attribute values, such as surname and date of birth, are specified in relation to attribute types assigned to the user type to which a user belongs.

    Date format

    Specify the format of dates provided as or as part of answers.

  6. In the Answers Verification Constraints section, select the Case-sensitive verification option if case-sensitivity should be enforced when an answer is verified.

    7. Note: Make sure you understand the relationship between the Case-sensitive and Different characters constraints. In a string of lowercase characters, uppercase characters are “different”.

  7. Click Save.

Edit a Security Question

Prerequisites: To edit a security question, you must be assigned the Update security question permission.
  1. Log on to the ActivID Management Console as an ActivID Administrator.

  2. Select the Configuration tab and, under Policies, select Authentication and then Security Questions.

  3. Click the Code of the Security Question that you want to edit.

    4. All the tabs are accessible and all settings can be modified except the Code.

  4. Edit the security question settings as required and click Save to apply your changes.

    5. If you want to cancel the operation, click Back to List.

Copy a Security Question

Prerequisites: To copy a security question, you must be assigned the Create security question permission.
  1. Log on to the ActivID Management Console as an ActivID Administrator.

  2. Select the Configuration tab and, under Policies, select Authentication and then Security Questions.

  3. To copy one or more Security Questions, select the check boxes to the left of the names and click Copy.

    4. One copy for each selected security question is created with the same parameter values except the:

    • Code
    • Name – ‘Copy of’ is appended to the original name.

  4. Click the Code of the Security Question that you just copied and edit the settings.

  5. Click Save to apply your changes.