The Benefits of Understanding Passwords

Abstract

In an effort to assess the strength of passwords, password strength checkers count lower-case and upper-case letters, digits and other characters. However, this does not truly measure how likely a given password is. To determine the likelihood of a password, one must first understand how passwords are generated—this chapter takes a first step in that direction. This is particularly important in a mobile context, where users already are tempted to use short and simple passwords—given how arduous password entry is.