There are a number of ways to prevent brute force attacks. Some of the most common password stealing softwares include Brutus, Wfuzz, and RainbowCrack. This is a reliable way to steal your information, as many users use passwords as easy as “abcd”. When using the brute force method, hackers use software that repeatedly tries several password combinations. We use passwords that are simple, relevant and can be guessed within a few tries. Make sure to also keep your software updated, as keyloggers can take advantage of software vulnerabilities to inject themselves into your system. You can also install a password manager, which will autofill your passwords and prevent keyloggers from accessing your credentials. Use a firewall to prevent a keylogger from transmitting information to a third party. Cybercriminals use keyloggers as a spyware tool to seal personal information, login information, and sensitive enterprise data. The most common ways that hackers can access your accounts through your credentials are:Ī keylogger is a type of surveillance technology used to record and monitor each keystroke typed on a specific device’s keyboard. For most modern, successful hackers, this is what they put their time and effort into on a daily basis. So how do hackers actually do their dirty work? First off, it’s important to understand that this is their job. The longer that passwords are, the longer it will take for the hackers to get the right combination. While a password with seven characters may take only 0.29 milliseconds to crack, one with 12 characters can take up to two centuries. Hackers first go after the easiest and most common worst passwords, then move on to passwords with the least amount of characters. What used to take hackers three years to crack is now taking under two months. Even more complicated passwords are being hacked faster. Even more surprising? The password 123456789 is cracked 431 times during the blink of an eye. If you have a password as simple as “password” or “abcdefg”, it would only take a hacker 0.29 milliseconds to crack it according to BetterBuys’ password-cracking times. How Long it Takes Cyber Criminals to Determine Your Password This is another way that hackers can take advantage of people’s lack of effort or desire to change or diversify their passwords. She found that when people are forced to change their passwords on the regular, they put less mental effort into it. However, in recent years this method has been defined as ineffective by the FTC Chief Technologist and Carnegie Mellon computer science professor, Lorrie Cranor. The standard rule of thumb used to be to change passwords every 90 days. However, a shocking low 12 percent of Americans actually have one installed. And with a plethora of passwords, it’s important to install a password management program. With more than 85 percent of Americans keeping track of online passwords by memorizing them in their heads, it’s nearly impossible to memorize up to 26 passwords. That makes us more susceptible to hacks, especially brute force attacks. The average user also has about 26 password-protected accounts, but only has five different passwords across these accounts. This is why we often create easy to remember, predictable passwords based on things like family members, pets, or birthdays. Because of our visual memory capacity, it is easier to remember images and information that we are already familiar with and have some meaning to us. We tend to use passwords that are personalized in some form to our lives, because they are easier to remember. And since 39 percent have a hard time keeping track of passwords, we become incredibly susceptible to hackers when we keep passwords for years or even decades. Over 60 percent of the population use the same password across multiple sites. Why is it so easy for hackers to access accounts and obtain secure passwords?įirst and foremost, we reuse our passwords. According to the chief executive of specialist insurer Hiscox, in 2016 cybercrime cost the global economy more than $450 billion and over two billion records were stolen. While creating a password may seem like a safe bet, large, reliable companies such as eBay, LinkedIn and most recently Facebook have all been breached, compromising passwords for many of their users. Read on to learn how cyber criminals can hack passwords and password protection techniques. For many online systems, a password is the only thing keeping a hacker from stealing our personal data. Passwords also give us and others access into mobile phones, bank applications, work log-ins, and confidential files. Passwords are the most common way to prove we are who we say we are when it comes to using websites, social media accounts, email, and even the computer itself.
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