In the wake of recent security breaches, experts have been discussing the importance of including non-alphanumeric characters in passwords.
“Adding a symbol eliminates the possibility of a straight dictionary attack (using, literally, words from a dictionary), notes ITworld. “Adding a symbol, especially an unusual one, makes it much harder to crack even using rainbow tables (collections of alphanumeric combinations, only some of which include symbols).”
Based on GRC’s Interactive Brute Force Password “Search Space” Calculator by Steve Gibson, the article examines the number of possible combinations based on passwords of six and 10 characters (comprised of letters and numbers, no upper- or lower-case and no symbols) and estimates how long it would take a computer to crack a password.
It then compares the results to those calculated by adding a symbol to the passwords, making “the crack several orders of magnitude more difficult.”
For example, 2.25 billion possible combinations result from a six character password without a symbol, whereas there are 7.6 trillion possible combinations when the same password includes a symbol. Check out the post to see how long it would take to crack the password online via a Web app, offline with high-powered servers or desktops, and offline using massively parallel multiprocessing clusters or grid.
“Take Steve’s advice: go for 10 characters, then add a symbol,” recommends the article.
In the wake of recent security breaches, experts have been discussing the importance of including non-alphanumeric characters in passwords.
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