Kaspersky's new study revealed that most passwords can be easily force-cracked within less than an hour through the advancements in computer processing.

The researchers gathered a database with 193 million passwords from the dark web and tried to crack the passwords through various algorithms.

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Researchers Crack Passwords Within an Hour

The study used an NVIDIA RTX 4090 GPU to force-crack passwords while testing the estimated time needed to get the exact password. The research suggested that eight-character passwords can be cracked as fast as 17 seconds.

The database used took less than an hour before cracking 59% of the passwords, proving how simple it would be for hackers to gain access with common passwords. The researchers also tried using brute force attacks and managed to crack short and simple passwords easily.

"Passwords that are least resistant to brute-force attacks are the ones that consist of only letters, only digits or only special characters," the researchers wrote.

According to the study, around 23% of the passwords from the database would take longer than a year to crack. Shorter and simpler passwords are prone to attacks as they can be easily guessed with a simple algorithm.

Researchers Recommend Computer-Generated Passwords

Kaspersky suggested that users must use random and computer-generated passwords to increase protection on their accounts. This will avoid repetitive and connected words in someone's passwords.

The researchers also advised to use of mnemonic passwords rather than meaningful phrases. Several free password managers are capable of generating long and strong passwords.

In addition, users must check their password resistance to hacking. There are secure apps that check the credibility of a password. It can also be checked through the haveibeenpwned website to prevent using passwords that are included in leaked databases.

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