Indeed, AI is everywhere; it powers our gadgets, responds to our questions, and even helps us write essays and articles. Given its broad application, AI can be misused maliciously, which could be a concern in the future.
One example is the possible application of AI in password cracking, which was shown in a recent study by cybersecurity company Home Security Heroes. The study uses the brand-new AI-driven tool PassGAN as an example and raises issues regarding password security while highlighting the efficiency and speed of AI in password cracking.
PassGAN was used by the researchers in the study to examine more than 15.6 million passwords. The tool successfully cracked 51% of typical passwords in under a minute, 65% in under an hour, 71% in under a day, and 81% in under a month. The statistics are disturbing.
For instance, the tool may need 289 years to break a 12-character password with upper- and lowercase characters. The period would increase to 2,000 years if numbers were included, and it would be far more difficult to break, taking up to 30,000 years.
Consider the table below.
The cybersecurity company advises against using passwords made only of simple digits because they are simple to decipher and should be at least 12 characters lengthy. The website provides a tool that estimates how long it would take to decipher a randomly generated password in order to assist users in creating strong passwords.