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 such as $ 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 the system remembers to prevent reselection of the same password when the user is required to change passwords)

f. Account lockout threshold (how many failed log-in attempts are allowed before the account is locked)
g. Time frame during which account lockout threshold is applied (i.e., if lockout threshold is five failed log-in attempts, the time frame is the period during which those five failures must occur: within 15 minutes, 1 hour, 1 day, etc.)
h. Account lockout duration (how long the account remains locked after the user exceeds the maximum allowable number of failed log-in attempts)