Question

A security team has downloaded a public database of the largest collection of password dumps on the Internet. This collection contains the cleartext credentials of every major breach for the last four years. The security team pulls and compares users' credentials to the database and discovers that more than 30% of the users were still using passwords discovered in this list. Which of the following would be the BEST combination to reduce the risks discovered?

a. Password length, password encryption, password complexity
b. Password complexity least privilege, password reuse
c. Password reuse, password complexity, password expiration
d. Group policy, password history, password encryption

Answer 1

a. Password length, password encryption, password complexity

Step-by-step explanation:

Under this scenario, the best combination would be Password length, password encryption, password complexity. This is because the main security problem is with the user's passwords. Increasing the password length and password complexity makes it nearly impossible for individuals to simply guess the password and gain access, while also making it extremely difficult and time consuming for hackers to use software to discover the password as well. Password excryption would be an extra layer of security as it encrypts the password before storing it into the database, therefore preventing eavesdroppers from seeing the password and leaked info from being used without decryption.