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Data Security and Integrity

Passwords and authentication

  • 3 things to know
  • AS Unit 1

Overview

Three kinds of evidence used to authenticate a user, brute force attack on a password and dictionary attack.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

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Key term

Why is a long passphrase of ordinary words stronger than a short password with symbol substitutions?

Key term

Name the three kinds of evidence used to authenticate a user.

Key term

Explain a brute force attack on a password.

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    What is authentication?

    Model answer

    It is the process of confirming that a user really is the person the account belongs to before access is granted.

  2. 2

    Name the three kinds of evidence used to authenticate a user.

    Model answer

    Something the user knows, such as a password; something they have, such as a phone or token; and something they are, such as a fingerprint.

  3. 3

    What makes a password strong?

    Model answer

    Length above all, along with being unpredictable, unique to that account, and not a dictionary word or a detail such as a name or date that could be guessed or found.

  4. 4

    Explain a brute force attack on a password.

    Model answer

    The attacker tries every possible combination of characters in turn until one is accepted, so the time needed grows enormously with the length of the password.

  5. 5

    What is a dictionary attack?

    Model answer

    The attacker tries a prepared list of common words, names and previously leaked passwords, which succeeds quickly against any password chosen from ordinary language.

  6. 6

    Why is a long passphrase of ordinary words stronger than a short password with symbol substitutions?

    Model answer

    The number of possibilities rises with each extra character, so extra length beats the small gain from swapping letters for symbols, which attackers already allow for.

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