How long does it take for a hacker to crack your password?

The infographic reveals how long it takes a hacker to find your password, based on its complexity and length. Less than 8 characters, it only takes a few seconds to succeed.

May 6th marks World Password Day. It has been used for years to protect accounts of all kinds on the Internet, and now it is increasingly criticized for its ease of identification or even theft, especially from those who use “azerty” or “123456”. But with the right combination of numbers, letters and symbols, it is very difficult for a hacker to recover your password.

a Study of cell systemsInc., a company that specializes in computer security systems, highlights best practices to adopt to avoid easily hackable passwords via an infographic showing how long it takes for a hacker to find your password. To perform this study, the company assumes that the hacker is equipped with a desktop computer with a basic graphics card.

11 characters minimum

Thus, in 2023, using a password of 8 characters (the minimum required on most platforms) or less is synonymous with the golden egg for hackers. They can actually recover the famous Sesame in a maximum of 5 minutes, or even instantly if you use a password that contains only numbers or lowercase letters or less than 6 characters.

To start being able to brag about having a “strong” password, you’ll need at least 11 characters, including numbers, uppercase and lowercase letters, as well as symbols. Again, it wouldn’t be infallible, but it would take a hacker about 3 years to decrypt it.

more and more easy

If you want to ensure that the hacker does not find your password, the best solution is to choose a password with mixed characters and With at least 17 characters. Thus, a hacker would need “only” about 380 billion years to decipher it.

However, Hive Systems, which has produced this graph for several years, determines that password cracking is always getting faster and faster. In 2020, an 8-character password with uppercase and lowercase letters, symbols, and numbers can be found in 8 hours. In 2023, it would only take… 5 minutes.