Explain how the following items individually and collectively affect the overall level of security provided by using a password as an authentication credential.
a. Length.
b. Complexity requirements (Which types of characters are required to be used: numbers, alphabetic, case-sensitivity of alphabetic, special symbols like $ or!).
c. Maximum password age (how often password must be changed).
d. Minimum password age (how long a password must be used before it can be changed).
e. Maintenance of password history (how many prior passwords does system remember to prevent reselection of the same password when required to change passwords).
f. Account lockout threshold (how many failed login attempts before the account is locked).
g. Time frame during which account lockout threshold is applied (i.e., if lockout threshold is five failed login attempts, time frame is whether those 5 failures must occur within 15 minutes, 1 hour, 1 day, etc.).
h. Account lockout duration (how long the account remains locked after exceeding the maximum allowable number of failed login attempts).