Four hundred wrong passwords
At 2am the log of a company website shows 400 failed logins in ten minutes. All come from one address, and they try the same account.
A real user does not mistype 400 times. A program is guessing.
The log tells the story, if you know how to read it.
By the end of this lesson
Note
I can read a log and say whether it shows password guessing or a man-in-the-middle attack.
Key words
| Word | What it means |
|---|---|
| Password attack | an attempt to find out somebody's password |
| Brute force | trying every possible combination, one after another |
| Dictionary attack | trying common words and phrases as passwords |
| Man-in-the-middle | an attacker who secretly sits between two sides and listens in |
| Failed login | an attempt to sign in that was refused |
| Network | computers joined so they can share data |
| Intercept | to catch a message on its way |
The cells students fill in are left blank in this preview.
Starter
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Starter
3 questionsYour answers are marked here and are not kept. A college account keeps every student’s marks.
Two ways to guess a password
A brute force attack is a program that tries every possible mix of letters, numbers and symbols, one character at a time, until one works.
A dictionary attack is faster. The program tries common words and phrases, such as "password" or "letmein".
Signs of password guessing
| Sign | What you see |
|---|---|
| Increased network activity | A rise in login traffic |
| Failed logins from one address | The same address fails again and again |
| Unusual user behaviour | An account is used at odd times or from odd places |
The cells students fill in are left blank in this preview.
Check
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Check
3 questionsYour answers are marked here and are not kept. A college account keeps every student’s marks.