We all know our passwords probably aren’t as safe as they should be (looking at you, people who have used their pet’s name plus their birthdate for the last 10 years) — but would it take a hacker nine months to guess yours, or 25 seconds?
This chart, created by Reddit user hivesystems with data sourced from HowSecureIsMyPassword, shows how long it would take a hacker to "brute force" their way into your account, depending on how long your password is and what kinds of characters it includes. What they would do is run a program that systematically attempts every possible permutation of the letters, numbers and symbols involved in the password until it hits the right one.
See How Long It Would Take A Hacker To Guess Your Password, Visualized – Digg
We all know our passwords probably aren’t as safe as they should be — but would it take a hacker nine months to guess yours, or 25 seconds?