Cyber Criminals can now hack Complex Passwords in Seconds
Passwords are the keys to our digital lives, they are the first line of defense in securing our personal information online. But most people still use weak passwords that are easy to guess or even crack. In fact, according to a recent report, the most common password in 2020 was “123456”. Now, even in 2023, complex 7-8 character passwords are no longer considered safe as technology advances.
Hackers can easily guess passwords that are short, simple, or contain personal information like name, birthdate, or pet name. But, exactly how long does it take to crack an 8-character strong password? With advanced computing power and readily available hacking tools, a determined hacker can easily crack an 8-character password in a few seconds.
One of the easiest ways to crack a password is through a brute force attack. This method involves trying every combination of characters until a correct one is found. For an 8-character password that includes letters, numbers, and symbols, there are approximately 218 trillion possible combinations. However, with today’s modern computing power, a brute-force attack can be accomplished in just a few minutes or even seconds. This is because hackers can use graphics cards (e.g. AMD or Nvidia GPUs) or specialised hardware/programs to speed up the process.
Another tool hackers are using is the new advances in AI. In recent years, AI has been used increasingly to crack passwords, this is done by training AI algorithms on vast amounts of data related to password patterns and then using those algorithms to predict commonly used passwords or guess passwords by brute force attacks.
A study by ‘Home Security Heroes’ analysed over 15 million common-used passwords around the world, sharing how long it took AI software to crack every single password:
81% - Less than a month
71% - Less than a day
65% - Less than an hour
51% Less than a minute
So, what can you do to prevent your password from being easily cracked?
The first step is to use a strong password that is at least 12-15 characters long and includes a mix of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols. Also, avoid using personal information that can be easily guessed, like your name, birth date, or phone number.
If you want to know how safe your password is, check out this site below. It shows how long it would take for a threat actor to crack your password:
https://www.security.org/how-secure-is-my-password/
For even more tips and tricks click Here, our tech experts have tested and shared the best possible combination for password creation, with results showing it would take hackers a recorded octodecillion or roughly 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 universes from its beginning to its end to crack your password!
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This is Part of our Cyber Security awareness educational campaign. Through this training, you will learn awareness and key principles, and best practices to protect yourself, your organisation, and the public from cyber attackers. You will also be equipped with the knowledge to identify potential threats and take action before any damage can occur.