How secure are your passwords?

How hackers hack your password, and the algorithms and methods they use to do that. Also how companies and websites prevent those methods and algorithms to keep your data secure.
Eli Rooke Simon McSween
Grade 8

Problem

How can you secure your passwords to prevent hackers from stealing information?

Method

Research Project

Research

Passwords are key to keeping your personal information safe from hackers and scammers. Before we start talking about how your information is stolen, we need to talk about who the hackers and scammers are. It’s no secret that people want your information. 

Scammers

Scammers are people who get your personal information by tricking people. They use tactics that make the victim feel vulnerable. Scammers take advantage of that vulnerability by pretending to be police, doctors, lawyers, bank officials, or authority bodies such as the Canadian Revenue Agency, RCMP, CSIS etc. 

Scammers will try to trigger visceral influences such as hunger, thirst, pain, fear, excitement, sexual desire, and greed to override their common thought process, creating a blind spot.

Hackers

Hackers are people who steal your valuable information through technology to sell it to scammers. Hackers want to steal money and personal information to benefit themselves or the company they work for. 

Hackers primarily focus on passwords and account details to create financial theft, identity fraud, or resale on the dark web. They commonly obtain passwords through data breaches. 

Hackers typically convert encrypted passwords, known as hashes, into usable plaintext format. They commonly use brute-force attacks until successful. Brute-Force Attacks use trial-and-error tactics with automated software, attempting numerous combinations until it finds the correct password. A Dictionary Attack is a type of brute force attack where an intruder attempts to crack a password-protected security system with a “dictionary list” of common words and phrases used by businesses and people.

Another hacking method involves rainbow tables, which are precomputed databases of password hashes and corresponding plaintext passwords. These tables accelerate the cracking process by directly referencing stored combinations rather than computing each attempt individually. The term "rainbow" describes the visual colour of the plaintext and hashes of the password.

Password Security

To improve password security and prevent these attacks, individuals should use a diverse combination of uppercase letters, numbers, and special characters. An example would be replacing certain letters with numbers and symbols, such as transforming "speed" into "Sp33d!" which makes it harder for brute-force and rainbow table attacks.

 

Data

Conclusion

  • Our original question was How can you make your passwords more secure to prevent hackers from stealing information?
  • The answer to that question is, adding uppercase letters, special characters, and occasionally have a letter replaced with a number.
  • Now there are many more ways to protect your passwords, but those are the main ones we focused on.
  • Our hypothesis was correct, but we learnt more on why we do some of the things that passwords require.

Acknowledgement