ASSIGNMENT 1 – Some Password Fun! (2-page paper)

Follow the directions below to see how various passwords can be considered strong or weak relative to security best practices.

Point your favorite browser to: https://xkpasswd.net/s/ (Links to an external site.)
1. Scroll down to the comic READ it to learn of the ways we have crafted WEAK passwords; then read of a better way to craft STRONG passwords
2. Scroll back to the top
3. In the Password Generator section and the Presets box, hover your mouse over the XKCD box and view the explanation for the type of password it will generate.
4. Repeat for DEFAULT and WIFI boxes.
5. Click on the DEFAULT box. This will change the structure of the passwords youll generate.
6. Play around with the various settings: click on the + sign to open each of the options for each Setting (Words, Transformations, Separator, Padding Digits/Symbols).
7. Generate different passwords using the various options in the Settings. Copy the results into a blank document and answer the questions below.

Write a two-page paper answering the following questions about the passwords you generated and upload your answers in a Word or Word-compatible document.  Please include the question with your answer.

1. What is the difference between DEFAULT, WIFI, and XKCD passwords in terms of their structure? Hint: what were the explanations for the different types?
2. How did some of the settings change the structure of the passwords?
3. How was entropy affected?
4. What 3 passwords did you generate for each of the above types (XKCD, DEFAULT, WIFI)? Provide one sample of each here.
5. What is entropy? Hint: review the comic.
6. What do you think about the differences between length vs complexity of passwords? If you were making a policy recommendation for your employer, what might it look like?

ASSIGNMENT 2 – IDS vs Firewalls (1-page paper)

Write a one-page paper comparing and contrast IDSs to firewalls. Note one difference OR one similarity.

ASSIGNMENT 3 – Virus and Content Filtering (1-page paper)

Using the Web and this weeks reading material, research one recent virus, provide a one-page paper, and how you would mitigate against it.