What Is My Password?
Date: 2022-03-16
Author: Gabriela Peralta, Marketing & Public Relations Coordinator
Not only are users constantly figuring out what their passwords are, but so are malicious actors. A technology company has crunched the numbers and found exactly how long it takes a modern hacker in 2022 to break a password. The couple of years they’ve been disclosing their “Are Your Passwords in the Green?” table, they have taught us that with more technology available for users, the more available technology to cyber criminals, and with every passing year, the time to break a password decreases. Let’s take a closer look at their table for 2022.
Most passwords we are asked to create today require a minimum 8 characters including at least one special character and one upper and lower case character. According to the Green Table, this would take a mere 2 minutes effort with today’s technology, welcome to 2022!
History of Passwords
Passwords have been around since the time of the Romans and were introduced to computers in 1961. With growing issues of cyber attacks, passwords evolved into username-passwords, secret questions-answers, one-time-passwords, and the list goes on. Today, an average person has to keep up with around 60-70 passwords. When we think about what these passwords are safe-keeping, too much is at stake for individuals and for organizations and companies, regardless of their size and revenue.
Passwords Have Failed Us
The reality we face is passwords are no longer optimal, nor user friendly. Passwords are easy to forget, capable of being hacked (as we just learnt), and cumbersome to use. How many of us, if we are honest, will change the passwords we own, that lie in the orange or red, far from the ideal green category? As our Americas General Manager, Carolina Martinez, stated in 2019, “Convenience has made us reckless with our security”. Passwords were never meant to protect us from the sophisticated organized hacking groups that exist today. So, where do we go from here?
A Passwordless Future
In our article Go Remote, we describe how multi-factor authentication (MFA) and virtual credentials can be incorporated with PKI to facilitate companies working remotely. Who knew after this article was published, the pandemic would push the world to become remote. Tokens are part of a solution we have stood behind and the reason Versasec exists, to solve the cyber security identity issue we face today. Even if you are not an IT professional, we encourage you to become familiar with this solution and learn about our products.
Joining our fight for secure authentication is the FIDO Alliance, making waves, developing and promoting authentication standards with industry drivers by providing a full range of authentication technologies. The combination of biometric security, PKI based hardware tokens, among others, are accelerating our digital world toward a passwordless future.
Next Steps
We encourage you to watch our summer video vlog series to learn more about MFA and PKI with our CEO Joakim Thorén, and how these technologies are already solving the password issue. Follow us on our social media platforms for recent news, and product updates: LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. Finally, reach out for a conversation to learn more about implementing PKI at your company!
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