Indian Joe / Android Salad
TL; DR
- Cybersecurity firm Home Security Heroes has published a study on artificial intelligence and its ability to crack passwords.
- A new AI password cracker is capable of cracking the majority of passwords six characters and under instantly.
- Passwords with 12 or more characters are currently considered difficult to crack.
With the launch of AI tools like Bing Chat and Bard, people are beginning to realize how useful AI can be in their daily lives. But as with most products used with bad intentions, there is also a dark side to technology that needs to be considered. One such potential misuse of AI is password hacking. A new study shows just how terrifyingly fast today’s AI can figure out your password.
Cybersecurity firm Home Security Heroes recently published a study on AI and password hacking. Specifically, the researchers looked at a new AI-powered password cracking tool called PassGAN (Password Generation Adversarial Network).
In the study, the researchers used PassGAN to run a list of more than 15 million passwords. The results revealed that 51% of common passwords can be cracked in less than a minute, 65% in less than an hour, 71% in less than a day, and 81% in less than a month.
In addition, the group presented its findings in a table. As you can see in the image below, almost every password with six characters or less was cracked instantly. According to the organization, passwords longer than 18 characters are considered safe against tools like PassGAN. Based on the table, it would take at least ten months for the tool to figure out an 18-character password that uses only numbers.
If you want to keep your accounts safe from tools like this, the company recommends using passwords of at least 15 characters. These passwords must also use at least two letters, numbers, and symbols. It’s also important to avoid patterns – like “1234”. Finally, you should change your passwords regularly and avoid using the same password on other accounts.
Although it can be a little tricky, sticking to strong passwords can go a long way in keeping your data safe. And if you are worried that you will forget a password, you can always use a password manager.