Title My Password is not password
Time 90 minutes
Objectives To be aware of what makes a password “strong”
To learn a tool for creating a “strong” password
Have a current list of the the most common passwords ready to share. Pieces of blank paper. Whiteboard or
flipchart paper, and markers to take notes. Don’t erase anything from this exercise if using whiteboard, so
participants can refer to the outputs during the Deepening session
Materials
Preparation
A space suitable for the activity given the number of participants - clear any chairs and tables as needed
If running the activity in a larger space, or outdoors, colored tape to indicate “start” and “finish” lines
Step-by-step
1 Running the race
First ask all the participants to stand on one end of the room in a line. The goal of the race is to see who gets to the other side
of the room first.
Once the group is ready, call out the following instructions:
If you use your birthday for your password, take 2 steps forward.
If you use your [mom’s / dad’s / child’s / sister’s / brother’s / partner’s] name in your password, take 2 steps forward.
If you use your phone number or anyone else’s phone number for your password, take 2 steps forward.
If you use ‘Password’ as your password, take 3 steps forward.
If you use ‘1234567890’ as your password, take 3 steps forward.
If you use the same password for at least 2 social networking accounts, take 4 steps forward.
If you had same password for more than 30 days please make a step forward.
2 Invite the participants to sit in a circle.
Read the questions and invite people to discuss them:
Why are passwords important?
What can happen if the password is compromised?
How can we make our password “stronger”?
Why don’t more people use stronger passwords?
3 Tell the participants that you are going to use one of the tools for making a “strong” password.
Invite them to think of a phrase or a sentence which they can easily remember. Write it down on a flipchart or a whiteboard
and then suggest to change the letters to characters that they can easily recognise.
Debriefing 1
While everyone is still standing in their places, ask the participants the following questions: What do you think this activity
was about? What do you think is a good password? Why do people not use good passwords?
Tips for facilitators
After the race, you can suggest the participants to guess what the most common passwords are and write top 5-10 on the flipchart. List of
the most common passwords:
http://gizmodo.com/the-25-most-popular-passwords-of-2015-were-all-such-id-1753591514
You should also mention that using your personal information as a password is quite unsafe because there are algorithms able to break it.