"How an 8-Character Password Could Be Cracked in Just a Few Minutes"

Security experts continue to encourage using strong and complex passwords to protect online accounts and data from cybercriminals. "Complex" passwords typically require lowercase and uppercase letters, numbers, and special symbols. However, according to research by the security company Hive Systems, complexity alone can still leave a password vulnerable to cracking if it does not contain enough characters. Hive discovered that an eight-character complex password could be cracked in only five minutes using the most advanced graphics processing technology and Artificial Intelligence (AI). In addition, a complex seven-character password could be cracked in four seconds, whereas a password with six or fewer characters could be cracked instantly. Shorter passwords with only one or two character types, such as only numbers or lowercase letters, or only numbers and letters, could be cracked in an instant. According to Hive's research, even simple passwords with more characters are less vulnerable to cracking in a short time. An 18-character password only containing numbers would require six days to crack, but one with the same number of characters using lowercase letters would take 481,000 years to crack. This article continues to discuss advancements in graphics processing technology and AI slashing the time required to crack a password using brute-force techniques. 

TechRepublic reports "How an 8-Character Password Could Be Cracked in Just a Few Minutes"