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When I worked at a large bank many years ago, internal calls were verified to be bank employees. It was low tech, but when a bank employee called and asked abo

When I worked at a large bank many years ago, internal calls were verified to be bank employees. It was low tech, but when a bank employee called and asked about a customer we had them verify they were a bank employee by telling them to look up, and tell us what was on a certain page and line of an internal bank book. If their answer matched what we were looking at as well then the conversation continued. The books were changed/printed often.

ionforce 13y ago
That's just like early days video game anti-piracy measure. What is the third word on the second paragraph of page 42 of the Dungeon Master's manual? Etc.
- jcfiala 13y ago
  The Pragmatic Programmer website uses this system to allow you to prove that you bought a hard-copy of a book, so they can offer you a discounted ebook.
- nknighthb 13y ago
  Military codebooks are used in this way for authenticating over unsecured links. Letters or numbers laid out in a grid-like format, and you make the far side read off a certain cell. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DRYAD http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DRYAD http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BATCO#Other_functions http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BATCO#Other_functions
chilldream 13y ago
In my case we had a security code on an internal system that was updated in real-time. So the protocol was: "Hi I'm an employee calling from [X]" "OK, can I get the security code?" (caller gives security code) Any employee in the company could also request a no-questions-asked reset at any time. I actually had cause hit the big red button once when the call went: "Hi, this is [employee] calling from [branch]" "All right, can I get the security code?" "Oh, (mutters "security code"), it's $foo" See, that counted as a compromise because someone in the lobby may have overheard her. A couple other fun stories: - Once I called a branch and got transferred to someone else. The conversation at the other end: Him: "Did you give the code already?" Me: "...are you seriously going to believe me if I say 'Yes'?" - Apparently there was a phishing attempt where people would call our center opening with: "Hi this is [person] from the fraud department, before we begin can I get the security code?" I don't know if it ever worked, but we got several memos warning us not to fall for it.

ionforce 13y ago

That's just like early days video game anti-piracy measure. What is the third word on the second paragraph of page 42 of the Dungeon Master's manual? Etc.

jcfiala 13y ago
The Pragmatic Programmer website uses this system to allow you to prove that you bought a hard-copy of a book, so they can offer you a discounted ebook.
nknighthb 13y ago
Military codebooks are used in this way for authenticating over unsecured links. Letters or numbers laid out in a grid-like format, and you make the far side read off a certain cell. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DRYAD http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DRYAD http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BATCO#Other_functions http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BATCO#Other_functions

chilldream 13y ago

In my case we had a security code on an internal system that was updated in real-time. So the protocol was: "Hi I'm an employee calling from [X]" "OK, can I get the security code?" (caller gives security code) Any employee in the company could also request a no-questions-asked reset at any time. I actually had cause hit the big red button once when the call went: "Hi, this is [employee] calling from [branch]" "All right, can I get the security code?" "Oh, (mutters "security code"), it's $foo" See, that counted as a compromise because someone in the lobby may have overheard her. A couple other fun stories: - Once I called a branch and got transferred to someone else. The conversation at the other end: Him: "Did you give the code already?" Me: "...are you seriously going to believe me if I say 'Yes'?" - Apparently there was a phishing attempt where people would call our center opening with: "Hi this is [person] from the fraud department, before we begin can I get the security code?" I don't know if it ever worked, but we got several memos warning us not to fall for it.