Artificial intelligence can be used to perform cyberattacks such as cracking passwords with great ease.
Artificial intelligence is a good tool for generating audios, photos, videos, and texts; however, it can also be used by cybercriminals to violate people’s privacy by cracking passwords.
According to a study by Home Security Heroes, 51% of passwords can be cracked in less than a minute. 71% in less than one day and 81% in less than one month. The study also showed that passwords that only use numbers are the most vulnerable, with artificial intelligence cracking them in approximately 10 months.
In the case of passwords containing lowercase letters, with a minimum of 14 characters, artificial intelligence deciphers them in less than 11 months. A password combining uppercase and lowercase letters and containing only 11 characters could be cracked by artificial intelligence in 4 years. From 12 characters onwards, artificial intelligence could take 289 years to decipher it.
How to protect passwords?
For a password to be secure, it needs to be at least 15 characters long (include uppercase letters, lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols). It is also recommended to change the password frequently, at least every three to six months, so that it will be difficult to crack the password.
It is also very important not to use the same password for several accounts. It is more advisable to create a specific password for each profile and establish patterns to remember each one. As an alternative, it is good to use a password manager.
Therefore, a secure password or a vulnerable password depends on the combination of characters and numbers. It is important to combine numbers, letters, and symbols, and preferably to have 18 characters so that it cannot be easily deciphered. Advances in technology play a very important role; however, they also entail certain risks.
Finally, the Universidad Internacional Iberoamericana (International Iberoamerican University) (UNIB) offers the Master’s Degree in Strategic Management with a Specialty in Information Technology.
Source: Cybercriminals use artificial intelligence to crack passwords
