Which of the following is a board-approved method of positive identification?

• A. Randomly generated personal questions.
• B. Username and password.
• C. Public key cryptography.
• D. Manual signature on a logbook.

Answer: (A)

Positively identifying someone means proving they are who they claim to be through information tied to that individual. Randomly generated personal questions provide a verification step that is unique to the person and not something static they could share or guess. Because the questions are selected unpredictably and rely on private knowledge, they offer a stronger, individualized check that’s harder for an unauthorized person to spoof. This aligns with a board-approved approach to identity verification, where the goal is reliable, person-specific confirmation.

Other methods have vulnerabilities. A username and password can be stolen or reused across sites, and while passwords can be strengthened, they still carry risk of disclosure. Public key cryptography requires infrastructure and proper key management, which may not always be in place. A manual signature on a logbook is easy to forge or misplace and doesn’t provide timely, verifiable assurance of identity in many contexts.