Password

What is a Password?

A password is a text code given to a computer program that the program uses to make sure the person typing the password is really who they claim they are. For example, if you're the owner of an account, and only the owner knows the password of the account, then only the owner should be able to tell what the password of the account is. The program can then just ask real people "what is the account's password?" to confirm that they are the account owner. Since only the owner knows the password, people who don't know the password aren't the owner, so they won't be given access to the account.

All of this process is called authentication. Authentication is the process of confirming someone has legitimate access to an account. It shouldn't be confused with authorization. For example, the administrator account in a computer can do anything it wants (it has authorization to do anything), while a normal account may not be able to do things like installing applications. This means you can be authenticated into an account that isn't authorized to perform certain actions.