AI PassGAN cracks more than half of common passwords in less than a minute

A new artificial intelligence called AI PassGAN has been developed by the cybersecurity company Home Security Heroes, and it is capable of decrypting the 51% of [...] common passwords in less than a minute. The tool uses a generative adversarial network to learn from existing passwords and runs on a neural network that differs from regular guessing programs. Home Security Heroes has analyzed more than 15.6 million common passwords to evaluate the effectiveness of the PassGAN AI, although it excluded those longer than 18 characters and less than four characters in total.

The cybersecurity company points out that the more secure the password, the less likely it is that cybercriminals or artificial intelligence systems will be able to discover it. Therefore, it is suggested not to use less than 15 characters, to have at least two letters (uppercase and lowercase), as well as numbers and symbols, avoiding obvious patterns. Home Security Heroes also recommends changing the password every three to six months.

According to Home Security Heroes calculations, IA PassGAN would need six trillion years to crack a password with more than 18 characters. The AI can crack passwords with seven characters and symbols in as little as six minutesThe AI can also guess passwords with up to five characters with ease, although it only guesses a total of six characters if the credential has a combination of uppercase, lowercase and numeric letters. In addition, the AI can guess passwords with up to five characters with ease, although it only guesses a total of six characters if the credential has a combination of uppercase letters, lowercase letters and numbers.

How to protect passwords from AI?

It is important to note that as technology advances, passwords become easier to crack. Therefore, it is crucial to protect personal information by using secure passwords. In this regard, Home Security Heroes recommends creating unique passwords and avoiding using the same passwords for multiple accounts. In addition, it is suggested to enable two-factor authentication whenever possible.