{"id":2102,"date":"2010-10-26T01:00:47","date_gmt":"2010-10-26T00:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.intego.com\/?p=2102"},"modified":"2015-01-13T08:05:03","modified_gmt":"2015-01-13T16:05:03","slug":"are-any-passwords-secure-any-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/are-any-passwords-secure-any-more\/","title":{"rendered":"Are Any Passwords Secure Any More?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As computer power has increased, the tools that allow hackers to infiltrate computers have gotten stronger as well. It&#8217;s widely recommended that you don&#8217;t use common words for your passwords &#8211; don&#8217;t use &#8220;password,&#8221; the name of your pet, or you child&#8217;s first name, the latter two being easy to discover. Recommendations generally tell you to use a word that&#8217;s not in a dictionary, to mix letters, numbers and punctuation, and to make a password long enough.<\/p>\n<p>But are these passwords secure? And how long is long enough? A Swiss company, Objectif S\u00e9curit\u00e9, has developed a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.objectif-securite.ch\/en\/products.php\">system for cracking passwords<\/a> based on tables that are stored on SSD drives. Why SSD? Well, <a href=\"http:\/\/cyberarms.wordpress.com\/2010\/10\/21\/cracking-14-character-complex-passwords-in-5-seconds\/\">it turns out<\/a> that using SSD drives is much faster than traditional hard drives, allowing more than 300 billion tests per second.<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s how it works. Your password is not stored on your computer, but a &#8220;hash&#8221; of it is. This is a string of letters and numbers that is created by applying mathematical functions to your password. Since multiple passwords could have the same hash, there&#8217;s no way of working back from the hash to the password, but software can test billions of possible combinations to see if they do, indeed, produce the hash of your password.<\/p>\n<p>In a test, it was found that this password cracking tool could find complex 14-character passwords used with Windows XP in less than ten seconds. Passwords this long are considered to be very strong by Mac OS X (even ten-character random passwords are considered strong).<\/p>\n<p><center><br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2103\" title=\"password-assistant\" src=\"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/password-assistant.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"360\" height=\"266\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/password-assistant.jpg 360w, https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/password-assistant-300x221.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/password-assistant-100x73.jpg 100w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 360px) 100vw, 360px\" \/><\/center>But this cracking technology suggests that anyone with such a tool, and the ability to infiltrate a computer and obtain password hashes, would be able to hack accounts as fast as characters do in movies. Granted, one still needs to access those hashes, so a hacker either needs physical access to a computer, or needs to break into it and obtain the necessary privileges to get different users&#8217; hashes. But if, for example, your laptop is lost or stolen, a thief or hacker will be able to easily get this information.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As computer power has increased, the tools that allow hackers to infiltrate computers have gotten stronger as well. It&#8217;s widely recommended that you don&#8217;t use common words for your passwords &#8211; don&#8217;t use &#8220;password,&#8221; the name of your pet, or you child&#8217;s first name, the latter two being easy to discover. Recommendations generally tell you [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[353,96],"class_list":["post-2102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-security-privacy","tag-password-security","tag-passwords"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Are Any Passwords Secure Any More?  - The Mac Security Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"As computer power has increased, the tools that allow hackers to infiltrate computers have gotten stronger as well. It&#039;s widely recommended that you don&#039;t\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/are-any-passwords-secure-any-more\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Are Any Passwords Secure Any More?  - The Mac Security Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As computer power has increased, the tools that allow hackers to infiltrate computers have gotten stronger as well. It&#039;s widely recommended that you don&#039;t\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/are-any-passwords-secure-any-more\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Mac Security Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-10-26T00:00:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-01-13T16:05:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/password-assistant.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"360\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"266\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Peter James\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Peter James\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intego.com\\\/mac-security-blog\\\/are-any-passwords-secure-any-more\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intego.com\\\/mac-security-blog\\\/are-any-passwords-secure-any-more\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Peter James\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intego.com\\\/mac-security-blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/d0c16bd0a4dd8f82d91204f400c8d116\"},\"headline\":\"Are Any Passwords Secure Any More?\",\"datePublished\":\"2010-10-26T00:00:47+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-01-13T16:05:03+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intego.com\\\/mac-security-blog\\\/are-any-passwords-secure-any-more\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":359,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intego.com\\\/mac-security-blog\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intego.com\\\/mac-security-blog\\\/are-any-passwords-secure-any-more\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intego.com\\\/mac-security-blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2010\\\/10\\\/password-assistant.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Password Security\",\"Passwords\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Security &amp; Privacy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intego.com\\\/mac-security-blog\\\/are-any-passwords-secure-any-more\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intego.com\\\/mac-security-blog\\\/are-any-passwords-secure-any-more\\\/\",\"name\":\"Are Any Passwords Secure Any More? - The Mac Security Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intego.com\\\/mac-security-blog\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intego.com\\\/mac-security-blog\\\/are-any-passwords-secure-any-more\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intego.com\\\/mac-security-blog\\\/are-any-passwords-secure-any-more\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intego.com\\\/mac-security-blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2010\\\/10\\\/password-assistant.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2010-10-26T00:00:47+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-01-13T16:05:03+00:00\",\"description\":\"As computer power has increased, the tools that allow hackers to infiltrate computers have gotten stronger as well. 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