In order to strengthen a password and prevent a hacker from cracking it, a random string of 36 characters was added to the password. Which of the following best describes this technique?

Salting is the process of adding a random string of data (the "salt") to a password before hashing it. This makes the hash unique, even if two users have the same password, and significantly strengthens the password against rainbow table attacks and pre-computed hash attacks. The 36-character random string described in the scenario directly aligns with this technique. Key stretching is a related but distinct technique that makes a password hash more computationally intensive to crack by repeatedly applying a hashing function. While it strengthens passwords, it doesn't involve adding a random string to the password itself in the same way salting does. Tokenization replaces sensitive data with a non-sensitive equivalent (a token), primarily for data protection, not password strengthening. Data masking obscures sensitive data with realistic but false data, typically for testing or development environments.