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Using Gamification and Fear Appeal Instead of Password Strength Meters to Increase Password Entropy

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It is very common for users to create weak passwords. Currently, the majority of websites deploy password strength meters to provide timely feedback. These meters are in wide use and their effects on the security of passwords have been relatively well studied. In this paper another type of feedback is studied: a gamified approach supported by fear appeal. In this approach, users are encouraged to make passwords stronger through the use of visual and textual stories. This approach is supported by data-driven suggestions about how to improve password security as well as by fear appeal. To prove the effectiveness of this gamified password creation process, an experiment was performed in which users changed their passwords in two ways: without any feed-back, and with gamified feedback with fear appeal. To support the initial findings a questionnaire was completed by participants at the end of research.
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S C I EN T I F IC J OU R NA L OF PO L I S H NA VA L A CA D E M Y
2019 (LX) 2 (217)
17
DOI: 10.2478/sjpna-2019-0010
U S ING G AMI F ICAT I ON A ND F E AR A PPEA L
I N STEA D OF PAS S WORD STR E NGTH METE R S
T O INC R EAS E PA S S WOR D ENT R OPY
Przem ysław R o dwal d
Polish Naval Academy, Faculty of Navigation and Naval Weapons, Śmidowicza 69 Str., 81-127 Gdynia,
Poland; e-mail: p.rodwald@amw.gdynia.pl; ORCID ID 0000-0003-4261-8688
ABSTRACT
It is very common for users to create weak passwords. Currently, the majority of websites deploy
password strength meters to provide timely feedback. These meters are in wide use and their
effects on the security of passwords have been relatively well studied. In this paper another type
of feedback is studied: a gamified approach supported by fear appeal. In this approach, users are
encouraged to make passwords stronger through the use of visual and textual stories. This ap-
proach is supported by data-driven suggestions about how to improve password security as well
as by fear appeal. To prove the effectiveness of this gamified password creation process, an ex-
periment was performed in which users changed their passwords in two ways: without any feed-
back, and with gamified feedback with fear appeal. To support the initial findings a questionnaire
was completed by participants at the end of research.
Key words:
gamification, passwords, computer security, education.
Research article
© 2019 Przemysław Rodwald
This is an open access article licensed under the Creative Commons
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
Przemysław Rodwald
18 Scientific Journal of PNA
INTRODUCTION
The traditional use of usernames combined with passwords is still the most
widespread method of authentication [2]. The popularity of this technique is based
on at least four factors: it is easy to implement, it requires little or no effort for users
to become accustomed to it, it is cheap or even free, and passwords are ‘portable’.
Thus, password-based authentication will undoubtedly remain the predominant
security mechanism for the foreseeable future, although some companies are trying
to develop new solutions [33]. Over the last few years various alternative authentica-
tion mechanisms have been proposed. Examples include picture gesture authentication
[29], graphical passwords [30], biometric authentication, mobile authentication [44],
multi-factor authentication [12]. Other new web authentication techniques are also
currently under development [48]. However, passwords are still most common and
day by day widely reproduce among new web sites.
Unfortunately, for years users have had the tendency to choose weak pass-
words [1]. Passwords that are easy to remember but easy to guess (by attackers) as
well. Users additionally re-use passwords across multiple sites; this means that if
passwords are leaked from one site, attackers can effortlessly gain access to another
sites for users who reuse their passwords. One challenge is how to successfully
encourage users to choose strong passwords. Strong passwords have particular
attributes: appropriate length, composition rules, is not on the list of most popular
passwords, is not a dictionary word, cannot be found in publicly available data
breaches [39]. In the ‘perfect digital World’ users should have truly random, long,
unique passwords. But in the ‘real World’ users choose predictable passwords [27]
which are easy to remember. That is why a password creation process is often
a kind of trade-off between security and usability.
Additionally, regular data breaches have been observed in recent years. Such
leaks of credentials are not limited to only ‘small’ websites: Yahoo [49], Dropbox [40],
Adobe [36], MySpace [41], LinkedIn [43], Uber [35] are the best examples of some
‘big’ ones. Apart from losing private access to compromised sites, a much broader
risk is caused by the habit of reusing passwords across many websites [5, 22, 34].
Some online services try to mitigate the risk of password reusage by enhancing the
authorization process. Beyond ‘something you know’ (users’ passwords), implement
‘something you have’ (users’ device profiles) or ‘somewhere you are’ (users’ physi-
cal locations) mechanisms [34]. However, passwords are still the first line of de-
fence.
Using gamification and fear appeal instead of password strength meters
2 (217) 2019 19
This article presents a new approach to password creation. In this approach
users are encouraged by a gamified cartoon and a text story; data-driven sugges-
tions of how to make a password stronger are presented and the time it would take
a hacker to crack the password is displayed to frighten users. The structure of this
paper is as follows. After the introduction, an overview of related work and back-
ground information on entropy, password meters and gamification are presented.
Next, the proposed system is described. In the main part of this paper the experiment
is described, and the results are presented. The results are supported by a survey.
Finally, conclusions and areas of further research are indicated.
RELATED WORK
E n tr o p y
One of the most influential documents about password strength estimation
and many other password policies is the NIST Electronic Authentication Guideline
SP-800-63-2. The second revision of this paper, dated August 2013 [46] (now su-
perseded by the third revision [39], dated June 2017), covers the notion of measuring
password entropy. The idea behind NIST’s proposal is based on the Shannon’s theory
[19]. Information theory, according to Shannon, is based on a measure of the amount
of information that is random due to random variables. In terms of the probability
distribution function, most often this randomness or information entropy is expressed
using the following equation:
2
log
X
H X P X x P X x
, (1)
where P (X = x) the probability that the variable X has the value x.
Transferring this equation (1) to password entropy [20], if a password of size
a characters is chosen at random from an alphabet of n characters (for example: 62
for all English lower and upper-case letters with digits; 94 for standard ISO charac-
ters on a typical keyboard) then the entropy of the password is ns. Two examples:
a) for a password composed of 10 letters only (lower and upper) the entropy is
calculated as 5210, which could be estimated to 257, i.e. the password has 57 bits of
entropy; b) for a password composed of 8 characters from a 94-character alphabet,
the entropy is equal to 948, which could be estimated to 252, i.e. the password has 52 bits
of entropy. For randomly chosen passwords the equation (1) could be transformed
Przemysław Rodwald
20 Scientific Journal of PNA
to the formula log2(ns). However, users rarely use truly random passwords, therefore
scoring passwords based on this formula is useless in the real world. NIST developed
a formula to roughly estimate password entropy not for random passwords but for
passwords selected by users [46]. The entropy for the full keyboard alphabet is
calculated according to the rules given in the original NIST paper: the entropy of
the first character is taken to be 4 bits; the entropy of the next 7 characters are 2 bits
per character; for the 9th through the 20th character the entropy is taken to be 1.5 bits
per character; for characters 21 and above the entropy is taken to be 1 bit per charac-
ter; a bonus of 6 bits of entropy is assigned for a composition rule that requires
both upper case and non-alphabetic characters and a bonus of up to 6 bits of entropy
is added for an extensive dictionary check. Such an estimation of password strength
used to be adopted by many password meters.
Weir at al [26] showed that NIST’s entropy measure does not provide a valid
metric for measuring the security provided by password creation policies. The existence
and effectiveness of password-cracking tools, such like Hashcat [37] or John the Ripper
[45], leads to scenarios in which the probability of success in breaking a password
is far from what NIST’s entropy predicts [6]. Some passwords that appeared strong
on meters based on NIST’s entropy are broken relatively quickly by password-
-cracking software. It seems that modern and reliable password strength meters
must take breaking difficulty into consideration. The number of guesses required
to crack a password is often a more accurate metric of password strength than en-
tropy [14].
Even though NIST’s approach is not perfect and a few other entropy measure
strategies have been developed, for example Bonneau’s predictor [3], a technique
that simulates adversarial guessing using artificial neural networks [15], or Castel-
luccia’s adaptive password-strength meter [31], in this paper NIST entropy is used
as a simple and fast way to compare the strength of passwords.
P a ss w o rd m e t e r s
One of the most popular mechanisms that has been adopted by many web-
services and which helps and encourages users to choose stronger passwords is
a proactive password checker. The most popular way to implement such a mecha-
nism is with a bar. Such a bar grows and/or changes colour (most often from red to
green) to categorize password as weak, medium or strong. The only aim of such
a bar, often called a password strength meter, is to motivate users to create stronger
passwords.
Using gamification and fear appeal instead of password strength meters
2 (217) 2019 21
Among studies of password meters some findings are worth underlining,
the most important of which is that password meters make passwords stronger.
Ur at al. [24] tested 14 password meters during 2.931 password creation sessions
and found that meters with a variety of visual appearances caused users to create
longer passwords. Edelman at al. [9] observed that the presence of password me-
ters yielded significantly stronger passwords. Instead of forcing users to choose
stronger passwords by the use of strict policies, a better approach is to provide
feedback of the quality of the typed password. Users who see meters, no matter what
type, colour, segmentation, size, etc. tend to create stronger passwords. But pass-
word meters could mislead users among different sites by their inconsistences [4].
A password can be classified as strong by one password meter and as weak by
another. Additionally, password meters do not always follow the guidelines and
policies presented on the webpages. Such inconsistencies include differences in
meters/policies between account creation page and password reset page, lack of
precision in recommendations/hints provided to users, or incompatibility between
guidelines and effective password evaluation [10]. Research [24] indicates that
only stringent meters based on scoring algorithms make passwords more resistant
to password-cracking algorithms. In this study a password strength meter will be
replaced by gamified story.
F e ed b a ck
One of the most important aspects of the password creation process is feed-
back on why a password is weak and what should be done to improve its strength.
Password meters are helpful in this area but are not sufficient. Researchers have
found that a data-driven meter with detailed feedback leads users to create more
secure and, just as importantly, passwords that are equally memorable [23]. Fur-
thermore, NIST’s current publication requires that users who select a blacklisted
password should be advised to select another one: If the chosen secret is found in
the list, the CSP or verifier SHALL advise the subscriber that they need to select
a different secret’ [39]. This advisory part, which is provided by text feedback in
a password create/change form, has a positive effect on password strength [24].
Users react positively to the text feedback, the content of which should be tailored
to the user’s behaviour [32]: discourage users from using blacklisted passwords,
discourage users from just adding digits or symbols to the end of the password, etc.
On the other hand, this textual advice should not overwhelm users with too much
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22 Scientific Journal of PNA
information. If a large amount of text with many suggestions, warnings or hints is
displayed, users might even not read it. The balance between the amount of infor-
mation and its utility should be preserved.
An interesting type of feedback is fear appeals messages that are intended
to increase the perception of a threat and one’s ability to cope with it [25]. Such a fear
appeals have two main components: a) statements suggesting an imminent threat,
and b) statements recommending a certain course of action, including encourage-
ment of one’s ability or efficacy to follow the recommended course of action [13].
Vance at al. found that while interactive password strength meters and static fear
appealed treatment are not effective, the interactive fear appeal treatment resulted
in significantly stronger passwords.
In our system text feedback composed of two elements is proposed. The first
text element is responsible for providing gentle suggestions on how to improve
password strength. The second suggests a threat the time it would take a brute-
force attack to break a password.
G a mi f i ca t i on
Gamification, defined as a usage of game-design elements in non-gaming
contexts [7, 8], has been a hot topic over the last few years. Increasing user engage-
ment and enhancing positive patterns are desirable in many areas including mar-
keting, education, recruitment, etc. The effects are greatly dependent on the context
in which the gamification is being implemented, as well as on users [11]. Some of
the most popular gamification mechanisms are points, leader boards, badges, levels,
and stories/themes.
The use of gamification or something similar during password creation pro-
cess is not new. For example, Sotirakopoulos [21] and Egelman at al. [9] investigate
if peer pressure motivators stimulate users more effectively than other types of
existing motivators (like password meters) in creating stronger passwords. They use
a type of leader board on which a password is compared to other passwords in
the system. Seitz and Hussmann propose a game in which players score points by
rating the strength of passwords accurately under time pressure [18].
Points or levels are quite similar to simple password meters. The more
points a password is awarded, the greener the meter is. The most promising and
challenging gamified element is based on a story or some theme, therefore a five-level
story with a graphical theme selected by the user is used in the proposed system.
Using gamification and fear appeal instead of password strength meters
2 (217) 2019 23
GAMIFIED PASSWORD CHANGE SYSTEM
S y st e m d e s ig n
For the purpose of this study a system responsible for changing passwords
was designed and implemented. A simple form of this system, with the typical inputs
of a password change form, is presented in fig. 1. In this system the only restriction
for the password is minimum length (8 characters). Users do not receive any other
information or suggestions about the password.
Fig. 1. Simple password change form (tablet view)
An advanced form of this system, referred to as the gamified form, is pre-
sented in fig. 2. The system consists of three elements: a graphic theme, a password
change form (the same as in fig. 1) and a secure password guide.
Fig. 2. Gamified password change form (desktop view)
The most significant element, the gamified part (the so-called graphic theme)
consists of three elements: the indicator of password strength (from 0 to 5), a text
Przemysław Rodwald
24 Scientific Journal of PNA
comment encouraging a stronger password, and the corresponding graphic element.
A few sample graphic stories are presented in fig. 3.
Fig. 3. Sample graphic stories from the gamified password system
When working on the secure password guide part, after studies of many
password checkers some factors were selected and taken into account in our system:
more obvious ones include checking password length and character complexity;
more sophisticated ones include repetitions of chars (aaasss111, mkomkomko), easy
keyboard sequence (qwerty, 1qazxsw2), or leet transformations (letter S can be
replaced by 5 or $). And finishing with diversity of datasets: popular dictionaries used
by hackers (popular words, names, surnames), large database of password leaks (API
provided by pwnedpasswords.com [42]). To avoid overwhelming users with too
much information about password security, at most three warnings/suggestions
are presented. For example, when a password is too short, not complex enough,
consists of repetitions, exists in a database of popular words, exists in leaks, only
the three most important pieces of feedback information are provided.
A separate box provides information about the time required to break
a password by a brute-force technique. For time estimation the SHA-256 crypto-
graphic hash function is used. Although hashes from the MD/SHA cryptographic
hash function family are no longer recommended for password storage [17], they
are still one of the most common forms of storing passwords on websites [47].
Time is estimated under the assumption that a homemade attacker with a single
GPU (graphics processing unit) like the Nvidia GTX 1080 Ti is able to check 5 billion
(5x109) passwords per second; a professional hacker/cryptominer with a dedicated
hardware solution (for example AntMiner S9 [38]) is able to check up to 14 trillion
(14x1012) passwords per second.
Using gamification and fear appeal instead of password strength meters
2 (217) 2019 25
P a r t i c i p a n t s
Participants were recruited from the students of two universities: WSB Uni-
versity in Poznań (group 1) and the Polish Naval Academy in Gdynia (group 2).
Group 1 contains 116 civilian students aged 2022 from studies in the faculty of de-
fence at WSB University. Group 2 consists of 50 students (40 civilian, 10 military)
aged 2021 who had already taken part in the course ‘Security of IT systems. It is
worth mentioning that students from group 2 took password change sessions after
a dedicated lecture about password security. During the lecture the following topics
were discussed: evolution of password storage (from plaintext, through MD/SHA
family hash functions, mechanisms that increase the security of hashes like salting
and incrementing a number of hash calculations, to adaptative functions like PBKDF2,
bcrypt, ARGON2, scrypt); password breaking techniques (brute-force, dictionary,
hybrid attacks); software for password breaking (Hashcat, John the Ripper); password
leaks; suggestions on how to create a strong password (mnemonics, passphrases).
Students from group 2 can be considered as having a good understanding of the topic.
S t ud y de s i gn
We performed a user study to test the effectiveness of our gamified proposal
with comparison to a simple password change form. The study was divided into
three separate parts: session 1 (simple form), session 2 (gamified form), and question-
naire. During session 1, participants were asked to change a password in the simple
form (available at edug.pl/password.php?form=norm&lang=en) presented in fig. 1.
For participants from group 1 this was not changing a ‘real’ password. During the test
a lecturer explained that they should treat this system as an educational web system
that requires login (not banking, not e-mail). As an e-mail they are not obliged to
provide real data. The students from group 2 use the edug.pl system as part of their
daily routine during classes, therefore for them this password changing was real.
As an e-mail address they had to provide real data existing in the system database.
After session 1 participants were asked again to change a password but this time in
the gamified form (available at edug.pl/password.php?form=game&lang=en) pre-
sented in fig. 2. They were introduced by the lecturer that they could select a graphic
theme and that during the typing of the password two blocks of information would be
presented: suggestions about password security and the time it would take to break
the password.
Przemysław Rodwald
26 Scientific Journal of PNA
Students were informed that during both sessions, passwords (as plaintexts)
would not be stored, but some characteristics would be collected (password entropy,
password length, password complexity, breaking time).
Q u es t i on n a ir e
Participants evaluated their experience in a questionnaire immediately after
the gamified password changing session. The questionnaire consists of five questions.
Question 1: ‘The password created by you in the gamified system in comparison to
the password created by you in the simple system was: a) stronger, b) the same,
c) weaker?’. Question 2: ‘How and which graphic theme did you choose (select it)?’,
which had two possible answers: a) ‘I remained at the randomly chosen motive’,
b) ‘I chose the theme myself’. All themes are presented in fig. 4.
Fig. 4. Themes in the gamified system
Question 3: What element had the greatest impact on you when building
your password?’, which had three answers: a) the desire to see the next pictures
(comments) in the selected theme’, b) comments about the strength of the pass-
word’, c) ‘the time it would take to break the password’. Question 4: ‘Is the gamified
approach more effective in building a strong password in comparison to the classic
password meters on many websites?’, which had three simple options: a) ‘yes’,
b) no’, c) ‘I don’t know’. Question 5: ‘How do you remember passwords?’, which
had the possible answers: a) ‘in my browser’, b) ‘in dedicated software like 1Password,
Dashlane, KeePass, LastPass’, c) ‘in my mind’, d) ‘another way.
RESULTS
During the password changing/creating sessions some characteristics were
collected. Even though the total number of unique stored sessions was 367, only
Using gamification and fear appeal instead of password strength meters
2 (217) 2019 27
266 are important from the perspective of this article (133 session pairs). Only
those, for which two unique password change sessions are stored: one for a simple
password change form and one for a gamified password change form (for the same
e-mail address). Tab. 1 shows the minimum, average and maximum values for
length, number of character classes, and entropy.
Most recent research on the use of gamification in educational contexts have
shown that it has served its purpose well, for it has increased student engagement
and motivation [12, 40]. To prove the validity of author’s attempt to implement
gamification in academic teaching, after course completion, an anonymous ques-
tionnaire was filled in by students taking part in the gamification-oriented classes.
Tab. 1. Password composition characteristics for the simple and gamified forms
length
character
classes
entropy
simple form
min
8
1
18
avg
11.02
2.49
25.05
max
24
4
46
gamified form
min
8
1
18
avg
12.89
2.83
28.88
max
33
4
55
The most significant results are as follows: the average password length is
almost two characters longer in the gamified system; the average entropy is 15%
more in the gamified system. We compared the changes in password strength for
each participant and the results are presented in tab. 2.
Tab. 2. Password composition characteristics between the gamified and the simple form
max
password length in gamified form / password length in simple form
3.67
character classes in gamified form / character classes in simple form
4.00
password entropy in gamified form / password entropy in simple form
2.16
Password length is in gamified form: equal to a simple form for 52, greater for
65 participants. Only 16 users decided to define a shorter password in the gamified
system. 93 participants had the same number of character classes in both systems,
while for 36 users the number of character classes was larger in the gamified system
than in the simple system. Password entropy is in gamified form: greater for 73,
equal for 44 participants (they mostly setup the same password in both systems),
and smaller for 16 users. Breaking time is in gamified system: greater for 74, equal
Przemysław Rodwald
28 Scientific Journal of PNA
for 43 and smaller for 16 pair of passwords. Our findings worth to point out: average
password complexity is around 17% higher in a gamified system.
The most significant results of the questionnaire are presented in tab. 3.
The majority of participants in both groups claim that the password created in
the gamified system was stronger than in the simple system and that the gamified
approach is more effective than classic password meters. Students were involved in
the password creation process: almost 75% chose the graphic theme themselves.
The most interesting are results about the greatest impact for passwords. We no-
ticed here a significant difference between both groups. Participants unrelated with IT
topics (group 1) mostly (72%) selected the time it would take to break the pass-
word, whereas participants who understand the topics of storing and breaking
passwords preferred the gamified approach (44%) then ‘scared’ (40%). In both
groups, suggestions about password security are important for only about 17% of
participants.
Tab. 3. Most significant results of the questionnaire
Number of participants who:
group 1
group 2
completed the questionnaire
116 [100%]
50 [100%]
claimed that the password created in the gamified system was stronger
than in the simple system (question 1, answer a)
65 [56%]
37 [74%]
stayed with the randomly chosen graphic theme (question 2, answer a)
29 [25%]
14 [28%]
chose the graphic theme themselves (question 2, answer b)
87 [75%]
36 [72%]
claimed that the greatest factor when building a password was:
desire to see the next pictures (comments) (question 3, answer a)
13 [11%]
22 [44%]
suggestions about password security (question 3, answer b)
20 [17%]
8 [16%]
the time it would take to break the password (question 3, answer c)
83 [72%]
20 [40%]
claimed that the gamified approach is more effective than classic pass-
word meters (question 4, answer a)
73 [63%]
45 [90%]
claimed that they ‘remember’ passwords:
in the browser (question 5, answer a)
19 [17%]
8 [16%]
in dedicated software (question 5, answer b)
0 [ 0%]
6 [12%]
in their memory (question 5, answer c)
87 [76%]
35 [70%]
another way (question 5, answer d)
10 [ 9%]
1 [2%]
Password memorability was checked indirectly only for group 2 participants.
After the survey the password remind link was deactivated. Students had to login
to the edug.pl system as part of their daily routine at university, therefore students who
forgot their password had to ask a supervisor for help to regain access to the system.
There was only one such incident. Considering the majority of students remember
their passwords in their own memory (76% and 70% of participants selected ‘in
my own memory’ for question 5), one can assume that the gamified approach was
not significantly correlated with password memorability.
Using gamification and fear appeal instead of password strength meters
2 (217) 2019 29
D i sc u s si o n a n d l i m i ta t i o n s
Our results provide a few interesting contributions. First, we found that
the gamified approach increases password strength. Passwords in the gamified
system are on average 20% longer and have 17% greater entropy. Second, we identi-
fied that depending on users’ knowledge about passwords (storing, breaking, leak-
ages), their motives for choosing stronger passwords vary. For ‘normal’ users the most
significant factor is the interactive fear appeal; breaking time is the strongest argu-
ment for them. Topic oriented students are more prone to enjoyment and therefore
the gamified approach is more suitable for them. Third, both groups were rather
bored with and indifferent to widely used suggestions on how to make passwords
more secure. Such suggestions should be replaced or strengthened by other indica-
tors, such as interactive fear appeals or gamification.
Our findings need to be considered in light of the following limitations.
First, all the participants are students aged 2123, which could impact our results.
Second, although our experiment involved an actual website, for group 1 it was not
a real system. For group 2 it was a real system, but it did not store any sensitive
information about users. The results would likely be different for ‘important’ ac-
counts (banks, social media).
Acknowledgments
The author wants to thank Bartosz Biernacik from War Studies University for his help in providing
questionnaire among students from WSB University in Poznań.
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WYKOR ZYS TANIE GAMIFIKA CJI I KOM UNI KATÓW
WYWOŁUJĄCYCH ST R AC H
ZAMIAST MIERNIKÓW SI Ł Y H A S E Ł
W CELU ZWIĘKSZE N I A E N T R O P I I H A S E Ł
STRESZCZENIE
Użytkownicy systemów informatycznych bardzo często tworzą słabe hasła. W celu dostarczenia
informacji zwrotnej o skuteczności tworzonego hasła część stron internetowych wykorzystuje
mierniki jego siły. Ich wpływ na bezpieczeństwo został stosunkowo dobrze zbadany. W artykule
zaproponowano i zbadano nowe podejście do dostarczania informacji zwrotnej o sile tworzonego
hasła. Opiera się ono na gamifikacji wzmocnionej komunikatami wywołującymi poczucie strachu.
Użytkownicy są tu motywowani do tworzenia silniejszych haseł poprzez wykorzystanie wizualnych
Using gamification and fear appeal instead of password strength meters
2 (217) 2019 33
i tekstowych historyjek. Podejście to jest wspierane przez komunikaty informujące o tym, w jaki
sposób można poprawić bezpieczeństwo haseł oraz komunikaty wywołujące strach u użytkowników
(na przykład powiadamiające, ile czasu potrzeba hakerowi do złamania hasła). W celu udowodnienia
skuteczności zaproponowanej metody przeprowadzono eksperyment, w którym użytkownicy
zmieniali swoje hasła na dwa sposoby: bez żadnej informacji zwrotnej oraz przy wykorzystaniu
zaproponowanej metody. Uzyskane tezy o skuteczności zaproponowanego podejścia zostały
wsparte wynikami przeprowadzonej ankiety.
Słowa kluczowe:
gamifikacja, hasła, bezpieczeństwo IT.
Article history
Received: 04.12.2018
Reviewed: 10.06.2019
Revised: 18.06.2019
Accepted: 20.06.2019
... There are three primary approaches to estimating password strength. The first traditional approach uses the password's complexity to determine its strength, such as using the Shannon entropy or statistical methods based on certain simple conventions such as the password length and the sort of symbols or characters used (e.g., uppercase, lowercase, or digits) [10][11][12][13][14][15]. However, many studies have proven that the password-entropy metric is only useful for analyzing the strength of randomly generated passwords, not for gauging the strength of user-chosen passwords [16,17]. ...
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