Three answers, one question
You ask: "How do I store passwords safely?" You find three answers.
One is a blog from a stranger: "Just save them in a text file." One is a security group's guide. One is a forum answer from 2009.
Which one do you trust? A developer who follows the wrong advice builds a weak system. You need to judge sources.
Key words
| Word | What it means | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Source | Where information comes from. | a web page, a book, a person |
| Reliable | Can be trusted to be correct. | a guide from a known security group |
| Reputation | What people think of the author or the place, from past work. | a famous university |
| Bias | Unfair support for one side. The author may want you to believe something. | a company praising its own product |
| Evidence | Facts, tests or data that support a claim. | a test result with numbers |
| Cross-referencing | Checking a claim against other sources. | three sites give the same answer |
| Current | Up to date, not old. | last changed this year |
| Forum | A website where people ask and answer questions. | a coding question site |
| Licence | Permission, with rules, to use something that somebody else made. | free to copy, but you must say who made it |
| Repository | A place that stores code and its history. | a project on a code sharing site |
The cells students fill in are left blank in this preview.
Eight kinds of source
| Source | Good for | Be careful because |
|---|---|---|
| Search engines | Finding pages fast | The first result is not always the best one |
| Wikis | A quick overview | Anyone may edit. Check the references. |
| Blogs | Real experience and examples | One person's view. It may be old or biased. |
| Academic papers | Careful research with evidence | Hard to read. May be about a very small topic. |
| Peers | Fast, friendly help | They may be wrong too |
| Forums | Real problems with real answers | Answers can be wrong, old or rude |
| Code comments | Why the code was written this way | They may be out of date |
| Code repositories | Real working code and its history | Check the licence and the quality |
The cells students fill in are left blank in this preview.
Quick check
Have a go
Quick check
3 questionsYour answers are marked here and are not kept. A college account keeps every student’s marks.
Five checks for any source
| Check | Ask yourself | Warning sign |
|---|---|---|
| Reputation | Who wrote it? Do they know the topic? | No name, no details about the author |
| Bias | Why did they write it? Do they gain? | It sells something or attacks something |
| Evidence | Do they show proof? | Big claims with no tests, data or examples |
| Cross-referencing | Do other good sources agree? | Only one source says it |
| Currency | When was it written or updated? | Old date, or no date at all |
The cells students fill in are left blank in this preview.
AI answers are sources too
data-callouts.warning.label
A chat tool can give an answer that sounds sure but is wrong. Treat it like any other source. Ask where it got the idea. Check it against two other sources before you use it.