Page 88 - Cyber Safety C-8

To keep accounts secure,
avoid sharing passwords,
writing them down, or
logging in from public
computers. Always use
Incognito or Guest mode
on shared devices and
remember to log out
after use.

21 st
Century #Critical Thinking
Skills
FAILURE OF BASIC ACCOUNT SECURITY PRACTICES

Maya, a bright student, managed five different online accounts—her school portal, email, game
login, library app, and a fun quiz website. To make life easy, she used the same simple password
everywhere: Maya2024. She never updated it, never used a Password Manager, and did not activate
multi-factor authentication.

A month later, the quiz website reported a major data breach. Maya ignored the notice because she
thought, “It is just a quiz site.” However, the leaked password was immediately tried on her other
accounts—a technique called credential stuffing. Since her school portal had the same password
and no Multi-Factor Authentication, the hacker logged in, changed her recovery email, and locked
her out. As a result, Maya missed the deadline to upload a major exam assignment.
Based on the given case, answer the following questions:

1. Why is using the same password across accounts dangerous?

2. How could a passphrase be safer than “Maya2024”? Give an example.

quick

Fill in the blanks.
1. continuously search for simple or predictable passwords that can be cracked.

2. attack is depends on trial and error.
3. adds a second layer of verification to ensure that only the real account owner
can access the system.

86 Computer Science - VIII