Passphrases
Smart Learners understand and demonstrate responsible use of their device as described in the Kawa of Care Responsible Use Student Agreement:
I will protect my passphrase and keep it completely secret.
Preparation
How will you engage your learners?
When Chromebooks are deployed for the first time learners’ passwords are set in Teacher Dashboard to a generic, easy to remember password e.g. 2019room6 . See Chromebook Deployment. Typically learners with Chromebooks will use this generic password while learning to navigate their device. Use the following resources to empower learners to understand the importance of creating a unique passphrase and keeping it private. We recommend engaging learners prior to logging into their individual blogs i.e. after 6-8 weeks of deliberate teaching of Cybersmart: Smart Learners
Learners will:
know how to create a secure passphrase sentence that includes upper/lowercase, numbers and symbols, not a password
understand the importance of keeping their passphrase private
Prior to planning lessons explore the resources shared here. Consider reading this article which explains how to create a secure passphrase.
Identify how you might hook your learners. For example:
Take a couple of minutes and create a quick list of the most common passwords you think people use (Slide Deck)
Compare and contrast with the most common passwords (Slide Deck)
View clip "How to create a secure password, as told by a 12-year-old"
Explore the Frequency Stability Property
Cryptography challenge 101: This challenge is for all ages, it doesn't assume you have any specialised knowledge.
How to create a secure password, as told by a 12-year-old.mp4Use pause and play to deep dive into the text using the subtitles.
Make a secure passphrase with Diceware
Teachers - Recommend reading this article
Use the Diceware word list to create a secure passphrase
This is a list 7776 English words. Next to each word is a five-digit number, with each digit between 1 and 6.
Use a six-sided dice and roll several times, writing down the numbers.
A total of five dice rolls for each word in your passphrase. "What you’re doing here is generating entropy, extracting true randomness from nature and turning it into numbers."
How strong are Diceware passphrases? See the paragraph from the recommended article that explains this.
What tips could learners use from Mira's video to make their Diceward passphrase more secure?
Create a short video or diagram to explain their process
Dice Word List.pdfHow many Diceware words could your learners manage to remember to create a secure passphrase?
"With two words, there are 77762 or 60,466,176 different potential passphrases. On average, a two-word Diceware passphrase could be guessed after the first 30 million tries" Micah Lee (2015)
Frequency stability property short film Computer Science Khan Academy.mp4Frequency Stability Property
Can you tell the difference between actions based upon flipping a coin and those based upon blind guessing or simulating randomness? This short video examines the frequency stability property. Computer Science (Khan Academy)
Deep Dive into the Text: Video Transcript
Buddy up and try this out. Compare and contrast with one learner flipping a coin and another attempting to be random.
Learners record an explanation to share.