Junior high showcase

Think your password is safe? Think again.

If you think your computer password is secure, you might want to think again.

Columbia Falls Junior High eighth-grader Zayne Friar last week presented a computer he built that utilizes free software and libraries to crack many password codes — and it does the job in just a few seconds.

Friar was one of three dozen advanced studies students who showcased projects they had spent the last semester working on.

Friar’s project drew a large crowd, as people tested passwords on his computer. He explained that a password creates a file on a computer that anyone who can gain access to your computer can steal.

The file itself doesn’t reveal the password — but a piece of software called oclHashcat-plus then takes the file, references a free dictionary of some 14 million passwords, and then runs through the various combinations at a rate of 2.5 million a second.

We tried it with a simple password and it took just an instant to break it.

Friar said he built the computer with help from his father, and his project demonstrated how easy it is to break a password if it’s just a simple word. Good passwords, he noted, should have a combination of letters, numbers and symbols — they’re much harder to crack.

Another popular project was completed by seventh-grader Kennedy Payne. She made origami swans of every veteran who passed away at the Montana Veterans Home over the past 10 years. Each swan had the name of a veteran on it.

Payne did the project with help from teacher Paula Koch, assistance from the veterans home and her father, who helped her build a tree to hang the swans from.

She said it took about two months to carefully fold all the swans. The display will be donated to the veterans home now that it’s completed.