Which term describes the secret code used to grant access to confidential medical records?

• A. Usernames
• B. Encryption
• C. Passwords
• D. Anti-virus

Answer: (C)

The key idea here is authentication — proving who you are before access is granted to sensitive medical records. The secret code used to grant access is a password. It’s something a user knows and keeps private, used together with a username to verify identity when logging in. This is different from a username, which is just an identifier, and from encryption, which protects data by encoding it so others can’t read it, or from anti-virus software, which defends the system against malware. In practice, you’d enter a username to identify yourself and a password to authenticate, and strong password habits help keep patient information secure.