Password length helps defeat cracking attempts

In the realm of digital security, passwords play a crucial role in safeguarding your personal and professional data. A key factor that determine the strength of a password is its length. Let’s explore how password length helps defeat password cracking attempts.

The impact of password length

The difficulty of guessing a password increases exponentially as its length increases. This is because the number of possible combinations a password can have is dependent on its length. For a password composed of alphanumeric characters, the total number of combinations is 62^n, where n is the length of the password.

Short passwords: Less than 8 characters

Consider a password with 7 characters, including upper and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols. For example, zA0.b9!. The total number of possible combinations is 62^7, which is approximately 3.5 trillion. While this may seem like a large number, modern computers equipped with powerful processors can attempt billions of combinations per second, making it feasible to crack such a password through brute force in a reasonable amount of time.

Long passwords: 12 characters

Now, consider a password with 12 characters, including upper and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols. The total number of possible combinations is 62^12, which is approximately 3.2 sextillion. The computational time required for brute-forcing this password is substantially higher.

The risk of short passwords

Shorter passwords, especially those less than 8 characters, are not only susceptible to brute force attacks but are also likely to be found in dictionary lists. These lists contain commonly used or easily guessable passwords. If your password is in one of these lists, it’s trivial for an attacker to guess it.

To protect yourself against someone guessing your password, pick a password that is at least 8 characters long, and includes uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and if possible some symbols such as & and !. Avoid reusing your password for multiple web sites. This further reduces your risk, should a hack compromise your account, that your other accounts are at risk.