"The Top 12 Password-Cracking Techniques Used by Hackers"

As cryptography and biometrics became more widely available, the flaws in the password authentication method became more apparent. Weak and easy-to-guess passwords are common, as the UK's National Cyber Security Center (NCSC) discovered that one in every six people uses their pets' names as passwords, making them highly predictable. In addition, these passwords are frequently reused across multiple sites, with one-third of people (32 percent) using the same password to access various accounts. There are ways to address this issue, including implementing robust multi-layer authentication. It is also worthwhile to consider cybercriminals' steps to hack an account and know how they operate in order to develop better solutions for mitigating risk. ITPro compiled a list of the top 12 password-cracking techniques used by attackers to assist individuals and businesses in preparing. These methods include phishing, social engineering, malware, brute force attacks, dictionary attacks, mask attacks, rainbow table attacks, network analyzers, spidering, offline cracking, shoulder surfing, and guessing. When a password is stored on a system, it is typically encrypted with a hash or a cryptographic alias, making the original password impossible to determine without the corresponding hash. To get around this, hackers keep and share directories that store passwords and their corresponding hashes, which are built from previous hacks, thus reducing the time it takes to break into a system. Rainbow table attacks, one of the highlighted password-cracking techniques used by hackers, go one step further by storing a pre-compiled list of all possible plain text versions of encrypted passwords based on a hash algorithm, instead of just providing a password and its hash. Hackers can then compare these listings to any encrypted passwords found in a company's system. This article continues to discuss some of the most common and effective methods used by hackers to steal passwords.

ITPro reports "The Top 12 Password-Cracking Techniques Used by Hackers"