14 DAY TRIAL // According to Deloitte's Canadian Technology, Media & Telecommunications (TMT) Predictions 2013 report, over 90% of all user-generated passwords, even ones considered to be strong, will become very easy to hack.
“Passwords containing at least eight characters, one number, mixed-case letters and non-alphanumeric symbols were once believed to be robust. But these can be easily cracked with the emergence of advance hardware and software,” said Duncan Stewart, director of research at Deloitte Canada.
“A machine running readily available virtualization software and high-powered graphics processing units can crack any eight-character password in about five hours,” Stewart added.
Since passwords will fail to offer any serious protection to our online accounts, experts believe that we’ll have to turn more and more to additional forms of authentication, such as secondary passwords sent via SMS, token devices, biometrics, or “tap and go” credit cards.