The new PassGAN AI tool threatens to decode common passwords

Security experts are alarmed about the new AI tool lurking in the wild, threatening users about cracking their account passwords in as short as a millisecond. Depending on how common a user’s set password is, the new machine learning-based password-cracking tool, PassGAN, can quickly depict one’s password security hygiene.

AI tools have been prevalent, especially at this point in time when technology continues advancing, making people’s lives a little less complex day by day.

Such recognition of these simulated human intelligence platforms – initially intended for computer-enhanced learning, reasoning, and perception – allow security experts to weigh whether its contribution to today’s society can be of help or a threat in the long run.

 

Experts share how users could evade having their passwords decoded by an AI tool like PassGAN.

 

Password combinations’ security strength relies on the number of characters, the usage of lowercase and uppercase characters, and the usage of symbols and numbers.

AI tools are capable of guessing a user’s password – in as instant as a millisecond or as extensive as 356 years – if they are set using combinations (within four to eleven characters) that use only numbers, only lowercase letters, only uppercase and lowercase letters, a combination of numbers, upper and lowercase letters, or a combination of numbers, upper, lowercase letters, and symbols.

Security experts strongly recommend setting up passwords in over 12 characters that use a combination of numbers, upper and lowercase letters, and symbols for maximum protection. Through this password combination setup, an AI tool like PassGAN would take about 30,000 to 6Qn years to decipher.

Users are also advised not to set obvious patterns in their passwords, not to reuse the same password in multiple online accounts across different platforms, and to activate multi-factor authentication for added security.

It is also worth noting that password-cracking tools like PassGAN can only decode passwords from data breach incidents and password hashes database leaks online. These AI tools cannot directly hack into, for example, a Facebook account by merely guessing your password unless a data breach incident occurred beforehand.

Nonetheless, it is best to be prepared and implement resilient password security recommendations.