Technology

Top ten most risky countries to use the Internet

Learn more in today\'s cybersecurity update.

Federal News Network Staff

August 27, 2010 4:52 pm

3 min read

Cybersecurity Update – Tune in weekdays at 30 minutes past the hour for the latest cybersecurity news on the Federal Drive with Tom Temin and Amy Morris (6-10 a.m.) and the DorobekINSIDER with Chris Dorobek (3-7 p.m.). here to see the entire list.

Is your password strong enough? Traditionally, security experts have thought that an eight-character password was considered strong. But a new report published by the Georgia Institute of Technology, says we’ll need to start thinking about 12-character passwords. Why? Well, it’s all about simple math. Richard Boyd, one of the senior research scientists who worked on the report, says for now, 12-character passwords should be the standard. And he says they’re recommend 12-character passwords — as opposed to those with 11 or 13 characters — because the number 12 strikes a balance between “convenience and security.” Using clusters of graphics cards, researchers found they could crack eight-character passwords in under two hours. But, when they applied that same processing power to 12-character passwords, they say it would take 17,134 years. Assuming a sophisticated hacker can try 1 trillion password combinations per second; in that scenario, it takes 180 years to crack an 11-character password, but there’s a big jump when you add just one more character.

Check out all of Federal News Radio’s coverage of cybersecurity issues here.