Jacob Folbrycht of Muninn.ai has a table displaying the time it would take a hacker to break a password. The table shows 4 to 18 characters in the following stages of complexity:
- Numbers only.
- Lower case letters.
- Mixture of upper and lower case letters.
- Numbers, upper case and lower case letters.
- Numbers, upper and lower case letters, and symbols.
Here are some highlights:
- 4 and 5 character passwords in any format can be broken instantly,
- Number only passwords up to 10 characters can be broken instantly.
- Passwords of 8 characters or less can be broken within 8 hours, regardless of format.
- An 18 character numbers only password can be broken in 9 months. In contrast, shorter more complicated passwords take much longer:
- One year for a 13 character lower case password.
- Five years for an 11 character upper and lower case, or a 10 character password with numbers, upper case, lower case and symbols. Longer complicated passwords? Beyond a human lifetime.