Question

You just came back to your office from a meeting about IS security. You've learned a few things about a 'good' password, and you realize your password is inadequate. Your password is Thomas12211995. What is wrong with this password?

1) There isn't anything wrong with it. It's long enough, it has upper- and lowercase letters, and it has numbers.
2) The password is too long. Making passwords too long makes them too hard to remember, and the IT department ends up spending too much time sending out e-mails with people's passwords because they forgot them.
3) The password should have slashes in the date, which would give it special characters.
4) It should start with a number, so 'Thomas' should be moved to the end.
5) There are several things wrong with this password. It contains a proper name - 'Thomas' - and what looks like a complete date, your birthday. It is long enough, but it doesn't contain any special characters.

Answer 1

The password 'Thomas12211995' is weak because it contains easily guessable elements such as a proper name and a significant date. Moreover, it lacks special characters, which are necessary for creating complex and secure passwords.

Step-by-step explanation:

The password in question, Thomas12211995, does have some weaknesses that could make it less secure. First and foremost, using a proper name like 'Thomas' and what appears to be a significant date, potentially a birthday, could make the password easier to guess by someone who knows the individual or can access their personal information. Moreover, although the password is long and includes both upper- and lowercase letters and numbers, it lacks special characters, which are essential for increasing the complexity of the password. Having a mixture of letters, numbers, and special characters makes a password much harder to crack. Therefore, one of the issues with the password is that it should include special characters to enhance its security.