To determine the strength of several different computer passwords. At the end of this experiment, you and your classmates will have an understanding of what factors make weak computer passwords and which types of passwords are stronger.
Computer passwords are common – often, you need one when logging onto a school computer or when logging into your personal email. Passwords keep unwanted visitors from accessing personal information. Computer passwords are essential for entities such as the government, which keep people’s personal information on file. These passwords need to be very strong to deter hackers from accessing this type of information.
This experiment will take several hours.
You may need quite a few student volunteers for this experiment to get statistics that you can work with.
Easy passwords will be guessable by your classmates and include passwords such as your name or your best friend’s name. They can also include passwords such as “password” or “computer.” Intermediate passwords will include numbers but are still relatively guessable, such as your name and age. Difficult passwords will include uppercase and lowercase letters as well as numbers and special characters.
The student volunteers will most likely easily guess the passwords that are considered “easy.” A few of them may guess the “intermediate” passwords and generally, none of them will guess the “difficult” passwords. How does your statistical data prove that difficult passwords are stronger and are better to use than easier ones? What types of people would be better off using a stronger password rather than one that is easily guessed?
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