How Strong Is Your

Password?
A mathematical approach
 Who here has a
phone with a
passcode?

How many possible four

number passcodes are
there?
Are there any ways
to make the
passcode stronger?

What are they? How

do they work?
 Stronger passcodes are:

Long (the longer the better)

Complicated
Letters (uppercase and lowercase)
Numbers
Symbols
 Stronger passcodes arent:

Easily guessed
Common words/numbers (1234)
Related to you (name, birthday, etc.)
 Whats the math?
How does it work?

With a four digit passcode, for each

digit there are 10 options (0-9)
10*10*10*10 = 10 000 passcodes total
If you go up to a six digit passcode,
thats 106 = 1 000 000 (one million!)
 Whats the math?
How does it work?

If your passcode were four lowercase

letters, thats 26 options each time (a-z)
26*26*26*26 = 456 976 passcodes total
If you add uppercase letters, thats
52*52*52*52 = 7 311 616
 Whats the math?
How does it work?

Each time you add a level of

complexity, either in character choice or
length, you get more and more and
more possible passcodes.
That makes it harder for whoever is
trying to guess your passcode to figure
it out.
 Whats the math?
How does it work?

But remember: they will always try the

obvious passcodes first, so 8548 is a
better passcode than 111111 even
though it is shorter, because it is more
random.
 Check out the assignment called
How Strong Is Your Password on
the Class Site to learn more and to
evaluate your own passwords.