Understanding Password Security

The video discusses the challenges of creating secure passwords, highlighting Carnegie Mellon's transition to a more complex password policy. It explores the concept of entropy and the lack of standard measures for password strength. The speaker shares research methods, including surveys and Mechanical Turk studies, to gather password data. Findings suggest that long passwords are more usable and sometimes stronger than complex ones. The video also examines the effectiveness of password meters and pass phrases, concluding with insights from analyzing real passwords and creating a quilt with common passwords.

What was the main reason for Carnegie Mellon University to change its password policy in 2009?

• To simplify password creation

• To comply with a consortium's requirements

• To reduce the number of passwords

• To make passwords easier to remember

What percentage of people admitted to reusing their passwords according to the initial research?

• 13%

• 50%

• 100%

• 80%

What was the purpose of using Amazon Mechanical Turk in the password study?

• To teach password security

• To create a new password policy

• To collect a large dataset of passwords

• To sell passwords

Which type of password was found to be more usable and sometimes stronger than complex passwords?

• Short passwords

• Numeric passwords

• Symbolic passwords

• Long passwords

What did the study find about the effectiveness of password meters?

• They make passwords weaker

• They are ineffective

• They work well if they are strict

• They are only useful for short passwords

What was the result of the study on pass phrases compared to random passwords?

• Pass phrases were more secure

• Pass phrases were shorter

• Pass phrases were less memorable

• Pass phrases were easier to remember

What was a surprising finding about pronounceable passwords?

• They worked surprisingly well

• They were hard to remember

• They were less secure

• They were not tested

What did the analysis of real passwords at Carnegie Mellon reveal about different departments?

• Computer science passwords were stronger

• Computer science passwords were weaker

• Business school passwords were stronger

• All departments had similar password strength

What creative method was used to visualize common passwords?

• A bar chart

• A pie chart

• A quilt

• A line graph

What common theme was found in many passwords according to the quilt analysis?

• Hate

• Love

• Numbers

• Symbols