Adding an additional alphanumeric character to the required length of a password will multiply the potential passwords by how many?

To understand why adding an additional alphanumeric character to the required length of a password multiplies the potential passwords by 62, it is essential to consider the composition of alphanumeric characters. Alphanumeric characters include both letters and numbers:

• There are 26 lowercase letters (a-z)

• There are 26 uppercase letters (A-Z)

• There are 10 numerical digits (0-9)

When you sum these up, you have 26 + 26 + 10 = 62 unique characters that can be used in a password.

Adding a single additional alphanumeric character increases the complexity of the password by incorporating these 62 possible characters for each position in the password. Therefore, if the length of the password is increased by one character, the total number of potential combinations is multiplied by the number of possible characters for that new position, which is 62.

This multiplication reflects how adding complexity to a password significantly enhances its strength against brute force attacks, as each additional character increases the potential combinations exponentially. Hence, selecting the option indicating a multiplication factor of 62 accurately represents the increase in potential password combinations when one alphanumeric character is added.