It is safe to say that AI is everywhere. It is powering our devices one way or another, it is giving us answers to some bizarre questions, and it is helping people write their essays, articles, and whatnot. However, for something so vast, it is also safe to say that AI can be used for malicious intents and purposes, and that might become a case in the future. AI can be used for cracking passwords, and well, there already is a study revolving around that, and the results are scary.

AI can easily crack your passwords if you are still limiting yourself to just numbers or digits

Home Security Heroes, a cybersecurity firm published a study showcasing just how powerful and fast AI is when it comes to cracking passwords. The researchers took a new AI-driven tool called PassGAN as an example to showcase how one needs to be concerned about passwords.

The study shows the researchers using PassGAN to go through over 15,680,000 passwords. The results are rather concerning, as the tool managed to crack 51% of common passwords in less than a minute. 65% in less than an hour. 71% in less than a day and 81% in less than a month.

Thankfully, you do not have to be in despair just yet, as the firm shared a table showing which passwords are the most complicated or will take the longest to crack. if you are using a 12-digit password that is comprised of upper and lowercase letters, it could take the tool 289 years to crack the password. Add numbers to the mix, and you are looking at 2,000 years, and add symbols to the same, and you are looking at 30,000 years. You can have a look at the table below:

The firm suggests that you should keep passwords that have at least 12 or more characters, and it would always be advised that you don't just go for simple numbers because doing so is going to make it incredibly simple. For instance, the website even has a tool where you can add a random password, and it will tell you just how long it is going to take. I added a password that's just an 11-digit number, and it said "Instantly," however, upon entering the same password with a word, it changed it to "2 trillion years," so if you are looking to keep your password safe, it is an excellent way of making sure.

Remember, AI is going to get even more powerful, and there is a chance that there will be more tools like PassGAN in the future that are even more powerful. So, we would advise that you keep your passwords as secure as possible.