AI can crack through most passwords in under a minute. Here’s how you can stay safe

The common, non-techie public has just begun to use artificial intelligence and already they are very impressed by the capabilities of the tech and what it can accomplish with a little help. While some individuals are concerned about AI and the dangers it poses, others are seeing this as a learning opportunity to discover new methods to gain from it and to make the world a better place.

While AI offers many advantages, it also has certain disadvantages. Concerns have been raised in recent months concerning AI and how it may jeopardise people’s cybersecurity. According to a recent study, some of the most frequently used passwords may be in jeopardy since AI can crack them in under a minute.

A race against time
Specialised AI tools and bots can crack your password – its not a matter of if it can, but a matter of when. According to a new study done by Home Security Heroes, certain AI tools can hack over 50 per cent of regularly used passwords in less than a minute. 

The study used an AI password cracker called PassGAN to examine a dataset of 15,680,000 passwords. The experiment showed that over 51 per cent of most popular passwords can be cracked in less than a minute whereas 66 per cent of most common passwords can be cracked in less than an hour. Furthermore, the survey found that 81 per cent of passwords might be compromised within a month.

While AI can guess your password in less than a minute, it should be highlighted that this is only achievable if you choose simple to anticipate and general passwords with a short character length. 

For example, your phone number, birth date, and so forth. Passwords that are a combination of characters and symbols that are 18 characters long, on the other hand, will take longer to detect.

AI’s weakness
According to the study, passwords of 18 or more characters are typically protected against AI password crackers. Passwords of this length with only numbers take at least ten months to crack. Meanwhile, passwords with a mix of symbols, digits, upper and lower case letters were the most secure, since it may take up to 6 quintillion years to crack them.

How to keep yourself safe – the ideal password
The best way to go about this is to avoid using easy-to-guess and generic passwords, especially ones with simply digits or simple alphabets. Passwords should ideally be at least 13 characters long and contain a combination of characters, symbols, numbers, and upper and lower-case letters. If you are concerned about remembering these types of passwords, use a password manager to help you.

According to the study, an ideal password is actually a passphrase and should include at least two letters, with upper and lower case, a set of non-repeating and non-consequential numbers, and a bunch of special characters. If you use a gibberish password instead of a recognisable word, that’s even better.

As a best practice, passwords should be changed every three to six months. Finally, it is not a good idea to use the same password for all of your accounts.

Read all the Latest News, Trending News, Cricket News, Bollywood News,
India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.