PrepTest 152, Section 4, Question 20
Coming up with secure passwords for confidential computer(92 more words not shown)
If the statements above are(10 more words not shown)
- AComputer users should(13 more words not shown)
- BIt is expensive(9 more words not shown)
- CPasswords that are(18 more words not shown)
- DPasswords that are(15 more words not shown)
- EThe easier a(10 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Why not generate a random password? That might avoid a relative's name or birthday that someone else could guess. But the passage raises the next problem: remembering the result.
Imagine a long string beginning X87 and continuing with assorted letters and numbers. It could be difficult for an outsider to guess and difficult for its owner to recall. Writing it on a note creates another way for an outsider to get it without guessing. By contrast, an easily remembered pet's name might be guessed directly. These are different routes to a security problem.
What we’re looking for
The question asks what must be true if we accept the passage. We should keep both risks in view and check exactly what the author says about their relative importance.
Working the answers
- A
The passage says writing down a very difficult password creates a serious security threat. It doesn't state a rule that people should never do it regardless of other considerations. Describing a risk isn't, by itself, the same as establishing what every user should do.
- B
We know forgotten passwords use the administrator's time. We aren't given the cost of that time or told it is expensive. An activity can consume time without meeting the stronger description B assigns to it.
- CCorrect
The comparison is in the final phrase: passwords that are very difficult to remember pose the greatest security threat of all, because users generally write them down. That places their threat above the threat from easy-to-guess passwords. Being hard to guess doesn't make a password more secure overall if people create another vulnerability in handling it.
- D
This focuses only on the difficulty of guessing random strings and ignores what users do with them. The passage identifies these as especially easy to forget, then explains the threat from writing very difficult passwords down. We cannot treat resistance to guessing as a guarantee of the lowest overall risk.
- E
Comparing these categories doesn't establish a continuous rule that every increase in ease of remembering improves security. A very memorable birthday can also be easy for an outsider to guess. The passage describes competing risks, not a universal scale on which easier recall always means greater security.
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