Use Concatenate Functions to Create Word Variations

In this video, you will create variations of common words that hackers might use to guess potential passwords.

Hackers often choose to vary common words by adding: An “S” at the end to make the words plural, Symbols, Characters, Numbers, such as “123” or a house or apartment number, A birthdate, Or a birth year.

You will use the “concatenate function” to add endings to your list of words.

“Concatenate” means to link things together.

To begin, return to your Dictionary Attack spreadsheet.

In the “5,000 words” sheet, click inside cell “B one.” Type an equals sign to start your function.

Then begin typing the word “concatenate” and select it from the autocomplete menu.

After the open parenthesis, click cell A one.

Type a comma and a quotation mark.

Then, type the ending you want to attach to the words -- in this case, the letter “S.” Add another quotation mark and a close parenthesis.

Press “enter” to finish the function.

To complete the function through all five-thousand words, you “could” drag down the handle through the entire spreadsheet, but that would take a while.

Instead, you may choose to use the autofill feature if it gives you that option or you can double-click on the handle.

Great.

The rest of the words now end in “S.” Now, repeat the process to create another variation based on an important year.

For example, many people add their birth year or another year that’s meaningful to them to the end of a password.

Concatenate also enables you to add something to the “beginning” of a word.

Start your function with “equals concatenate,” but “this” time, add the variation in quotation marks first -- here, it is a number that is meaningful to you.

Add a comma, click in cell “A one,” then complete the function.

Sometimes, people add an exclamation point to the end of a word when they need to include a symbol in their password.

Add another variation of your choosing to the beginning or ending of the words so that you have five columns of potential passwords.

As you can see, it takes very little time and effort to create an extensive list of combinations that could be someone’s password.

And hackers use programs that are “much” faster than what you did in this lesson -- they have many “millions” of words and possible variations.

Now, it’s your turn: Use five concatenate functions to vary the beginnings and ends of words in the list.