Let’s evaluate the strength of one of your current passwords. Just because an attacker steals your password database does not mean he automatically knows your password. He still has to crack it. Creating a strong password can make it impractical for an attacker to crack your password. George Shaffer has written several online tools that help users learn more about strong passwords. These tools can help you understand the differences between strong and weak passwords.

1. Go to Password Checker OnlineLinks to an external site. 
2. Enter one of the passwords you use on a regular basis with a minor change.
3. Click Submit.
4. Take a screenshot.
5. Take note of the problems with your password (e.g., a number sequence and a dictionary word).
6. Try entering a password you might actually use and you think is strong.
7. Take a screenshot of the results. Note: Weak passwords are typically easier to remember. However, it is possible to create a strong password that is fairly easy to remember.
8. Students should then complete a page reflection on this lab and discuss which is more effective regarding password strength: password length or password complexity. This page should be at the beginning of your lab.

This is the next chapter of your lab book for the semester. Each Lab Assignment is a new chapter in your lab book.

Your lab book chapter each week should include:

• Cover Page
• Abstract
• Introduction of the lab assignment
• Screenshots that dialogue your lab experience/ what you learned during the exercise
• Conclusion of the lab assignment
• Independent Research – expanding the topic.. ( For example this week, we are focusing on the VM, an appropriate expansion may be discussing why we use a VM, uses of VM’s, history of VM’s, NextGen VM’s… etc)
• References

A Helpful Message regarding the projects/ lab assignments…   

Yes, we normally provide steps to follow and a general direction of what is necessary to complete the assignment…..   but they are not recipes…   they are diving boards for exploration.   Sometimes things do not work perfectly…  that’s OK..  note it in your lab book and continue.   The intent is to provide the general direction…  the assignment is intended for you to run with it and learn!! 

To capture screenshots of relevant content and submit in your lab book the screenshots in a single Microsoft Word document lab book assignment. Note there should be one submittal only for each lab.