Hacking through Brute Force

What Is 'Brute Force' Hacking?

Brute force is about overpowering the computer's defenses by using repetition. In the case of password hacking, dictionary attacks involve dictionary software that recombines English dictionary words with thousands of varying combination.
(Yes, much like a Hollywood safe cracker movie scene, but much slower and much less glamorous).

Brute force dictionaries always +start with simple letters "a", "aa", "aaa", and then eventually moves to full words like "dog", "doggie", "doggy". These brute force dictionaries can make up to 50 attempts per minute in some cases. Given several hours or days, these dictionary tools will overcome any password.

The time required to crack a password is dependent on following:
1. How long the password is?
2. How many characters are allowed in each position (uppercase, lowercase, numbers, special characters)?

Just like defending against car thieves, there is no way to reduce our risk to zero. But it is possible to make it very difficult for brute force hackers to enter our accounts. The best thing we can do is create complex passwords that use cryptic spelling and do not resemble regular English words. When combined with CAPTCHA services at our online accounts, our risk of being brute-force hacked is dramatically reduced.