Keeping Secrets: Good Password Practice

Passwords and passphrases are one example of a form of security measure called authentication. It gives them to people so that they can use them to prove that they are entitled to use something to which access is restricted: for example, a restricted area, a computer system, an Internet service or an encrypted document. An authentication factor is a procedure or chunk of information used to authenticate an individual, that is, to verify that he or she has access rights.