How long it takes hackers to crack your password based on how many characters it has

Data from cybersecurity company Hive Systems shows how long it takes hackers to crack your password based on how many characters it has, and how complicated it is.

Hive’s report showed that even an eight-character password — containing a mix of numbers, uppercase letters, lowercase letters, and symbols — can be cracked within five hours by the average hacker.

Shorter, less complicated passwords can be cracked instantly, it noted. A password with 18 characters – including a mix of numbers, lowercase and uppercase letters, and symbols – is seen as a safe bet from hackers.

The cybersecurity firm provided a colourful chart to show the relative strength of a password against a brute force cracking attempt, based on the password’s length and complexity. The data is based on how long it would take a consumer-budget hacker to crack your password hash.

The data has been updated from a similar chat published in 2020. Hive noted that hacking has improved over a mere two-year period. A complex 8-character password that took eight hours to crack now only takes five hours, while six-letter passwords can be cracked in three seconds.

🎉 It’s here! The 2022 update to our famous Hive Systems Password Table that’s been seen in the news and shared everywhere. Download the high resolution version and read our comprehensive methodology behind it at https://t.co/G3HHDHiUKm pic.twitter.com/Pqfqtlxy0h

— Hive Systems (@hivesystems) March 2, 2022

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