Before 2007, UGA required University students to give out their social security numbers for identification purposes in the classroom. However, many students were wary of distributing such personal information in that setting. Beginning fall of 2007, UGA created the 810 identification number to replace the usage of students' SSNs. However, this change for the students' security does not stop intruders from accessing students' personal information.

Every UGA student, staff and faculty member is required to have a UGA sign-on name, called a MyID, in order to access online earlier this month police reported that an intruder was able to access two University employees' records, using their MyIDs, by answering the account security questions and then was able to access the records of 8,500 University employees including students, faculty and staff. Click here to learn more.

I explain all of this as an example to ask: How safe is online security? When it comes to creating e-mails, accessing financial accounts or social media, security questions are everywhere online. Some of the most used account challenge questions I have seen is "What is your mother's maiden name?," "What was your high school mascot?," or "What was your first pet's name?"

In my opinion, learning background information like your past high school is information that is not very difficult to obtain when you get to know someone. With these answers, an online intruder can obtain valuable information about you within minutes.

How safe is online security to you?

Are their precautions you take in order to avoid online intruders?