Question 2
[Total Marks: 4+4+2+6+ 4 = 20]
Your grandparents are getting their first computer. They want to have the Internet in order to be
able to send email, read the news, and do online banking. They ask you to help them sign up for
some accounts.
a) A sales person has told them that they need to have a "solid-state drive" in their computer
instead of a "hard drive". Describe two differences between a solid-state drive and a
traditional spinning hard disk.
(4 marks)
b) When signing them up for an email account, your grandparents want to use the password
"mittens" (their pet cat). Explain one kind of attack this password is vulnerable to. Then
describe one characteristic of strong passwords that is designed to mitigate this kind of
attack.
(4 marks)
c) Having worked out a strong password for them, you start signing your grandparents up for
other services. They are keen to use the same username and password combination for each
site. "It's such a good password, why should we try to make any more?" Explain the danger
of using the same username and password for multiple sites.
(2 marks)
d) Your grandparents recently read an article on cyber security that mentioned the term
"hashing". They ask if hashing allows them to safely reuse the same password. Explain what
a hash is, and describe how it can be used for website authentication. Then explain whether
or not hashes make password reuse safe.
(6 marks)
e) While they are setting up online banking, the bank website tells them they will need two-
factor authentication but they are uncertain what this is. Explain what two-factor
authentication is and describe what would be required for your grandparents to be able to
use it.
(4 marks)
