When you register for My Account through the Canada Revenue Agency, you need your social insurance number, date of birth, postal code and your last tax return. However, you also need to create security questions and answers. These questions and answers help to keep your account secure, and you need to choose them wisely.

Purpose of Security Questions and Answers

Security questions and answers create an additional authentication layer on your My Account profile. To sign in, you need a user name and a password. However, to ensure your information is completely secure, the CRA may sometimes require you to answer a security question.

For example, if you sign in from a different computer, you are likely to be prompted to answer a security question. Luckily, it should be easy to answer the question as you created it yourself.

Easy to Remember

Your security question needs to be easy to remember. Ideally, it shouldn’t be something that changes either. For example, don’t create a question asking about your favourite food or colour, as those may change over the years.

Your security question should not, however, be easy for another person to guess.

Hard to Guess

Avoid questions with answers that are easy to deduce. For example, don’t choose a question such as, “Which month was your oldest brother born?” This question only has 12 possible answers, making it simple to guess.

Also, avoid information that is easy to find about you. For example, don’t create a question about the street you live on, your birth date or where you work. This information is fairly easy for almost anyone to find.

Similarly, do not create questions with answers you have visible on your social media account. For example, while, “Which elementary school did you attend?” can be an effective security question in theory, it isn’t secure if you have your elementary school tagged on your social media account.

Instead, try to create questions which are easy to remember but that involve information slightly removed from you or hard to find.

Examples of Effective Security Questions

“What was the last name of your third grade teacher?” is an example of an effective question. You can likely remember the answer. However, it isn’t easy for anyone else to find. Even if someone knows which school you attended, teachers usually change over time.

Similarly, questions such as, “What was the name of your first pet?” “Where was your first kiss?” or “Who was your childhood hero?” can also be effective.

Creating Your Answer

When you create your answer, make it simple. Capitalize and spell it normally. Don’t try adding symbols, numbers or different cases as you do with passwords. If you like, consider writing your question and answer and keeping it in a safe place.

Register for a CRA My Account.

Learn more about registering for a CRA My Account.