Assessing Password Protection Effectiveness Using Markov Processes

Passwords are an integral part of modern digital life, but their effectiveness has been repeatedly challenged. This paper explores the role of password authentication in modern information systems, the changes it has experienced over time, as well as new alternative approaches to authentication and their interactions with classical password-based systems. Technical and organisational recommendations are formulated based on security research and modern trends in information technology, and an application of Markov processes to assessing password quality is presented, as a quantitative measure of password system security and effectiveness.