It's Almost Always About Money

Ever wonder about those security questions that password protected web sites ask you about? Well Josh Levin at Slate has:

Why are secret questions so popular? For one thing, they're cheap. Gaffan says that the lost souls who call in to get their passwords reset cost a company between $10 and $15 a pop; if that customer can reset the password himself using a secret question, the company pays nothing. The IT research firm Gartner claims that a large U.S. beverage producer saved $600,000 in one year by dumping help-desk calls in favor of an "automated password reset" system.

Follow the money, and it all goes to the CEO.