The Password Literacy in North Macedonia: A Case Study

Following the repeated reports of high prevalence of functional illiteracy in the countries of the Western Balkans, we go on to study the password composition habits of cultural groups from this region. Ina password cracking experiment, we obtain and analyze a number of passwords composed for use in learning management systems (LMS) by recent high-school graduates from North Macedonia. We estimate the strength of these passwords and their crackability by methods adjusted to local cultural specifics. Our results indicate that high extent of general illiteracy is intertwined with low awareness about good password practices, which in turn may lead to creating various vulnerabilities to deployed systems and confidential data. We conclude that, in the studied region, there is an immediate need for educating the population of good password practices and good system and data security practices in general.