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Security Fundamentals & Crypto · Intermediate

Work Factor

The estimated time or effort required to break a cryptosystem or security control.

Definition

Work factor expresses how costly an attack is, often in terms of computational operations. Designers choose algorithms and parameters so the work factor exceeds the value and lifetime of the protected data. Key stretching deliberately increases the work factor for password guessing.

Example

Raising the bcrypt cost from 10 to 12 makes each password guess roughly four times slower.

Exam tip

Security is adequate when the work factor to break it outlasts the data's sensitivity period.

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