Effective Passwords

Nearly everyone today struggles with a myriad of passwords for their online activities. Michelle Mazurek, PhD, Assistant Professor, Computer Science at the University of Maryland College Park, was involved in research at Carnegie Mellon University that found that long passphrases are more effective and easier to remember than an incomprehensible string of letters, numbers and special characters.

Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It

Chris Voss, former FBI’s lead international kidnapping negotiator, founder and principal of The Black Swan Group, author of Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It discussed the skills that helped him and his colleagues succeed where it mattered most: saving lives. He explained how of those same negotiating tactics and principles are critical in everyday life, in areas such as buying a car, negotiating a salary, buying a home, or parenting.

Retirement Planning in Today’s Economy

Christine Fahlund, Senior Financial Planner and Vice President of Investment Services at
T. Rowe Price Investment Services discussed the effect that today’s economy has on retirement planning. She believes that many Baby Boomers have been naive when it comes to planning for retirement. She also explained why some employers are becoming more proactive in helping their workers save for their senior years.

Michelle Mazurek

Michelle Mazurek is an assistant professor of computer science with joint appointments in the Maryland Cybersecurity Center and the Human-Computer Interaction Lab.



Her research is focused on computer security, with an emphasis on human factors. She is interested in designing systems to support usable security.



Mazurek was most recently affiliated with the CyLab Usable Privacy and Security Lab and the Parallel Data Lab at Carnegie Mellon University. She has also worked with a group investigating usability-security tradeoffs for passwords, primarily relating to how password policies and user instructions affect the passwords users create. They developed new metrics for password strength and pioneered using large online studies to collect controlled password data.



Mazurek received her doctorate in electrical and computer engineering from Carnegie Mellon University in 2014.

Learn More About Dr. Mazurek

Chris Voss

Chris Voss is the Founder and CEO of the Black Swan Group Ltd and author of Never Split The Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It. He has used his many years of experience in international crisis and high-stakes negotiations to develop a unique program and team that applies these globally proven techniques to the business world.

Learn More about Mr.Voss