Which password choice demonstrates the strongest protection?

Which password choice demonstrates the strongest protection?

• A. password123
• B. Marjorie combines 5 random words and alternates the casing: "scarves-TOKYO-theme-TEAMWORK-trulia".
• C. qwerty!
• D. Letmein2010

Answer: (B)

Long, randomized passwords that are long in length are much harder to crack than short, common ones. The option with five random words, plus mixed casing and separators, creates a huge number of possible combinations. Because the words are random and not a familiar phrase, attackers can’t easily guess it by trying common terms or patterns. The extra capitalization and the separators add complexity without sacrificing the overall unpredictability, making brute-force and dictionary attacks far less likely to succeed. In contrast, simple, predictable passwords—whether a common word with numbers, a keyboard pattern, or a well-known phrase with a year—are routinely tried by attackers and can be cracked quickly. So the five-random-words approach offers the strongest protection.

Long, randomized passwords that are long in length are much harder to crack than short, common ones. The option with five random words, plus mixed casing and separators, creates a huge number of possible combinations. Because the words are random and not a familiar phrase, attackers can’t easily guess it by trying common terms or patterns. The extra capitalization and the separators add complexity without sacrificing the overall unpredictability, making brute-force and dictionary attacks far less likely to succeed. In contrast, simple, predictable passwords—whether a common word with numbers, a keyboard pattern, or a well-known phrase with a year—are routinely tried by attackers and can be cracked quickly. So the five-random-words approach offers the strongest protection.