How secure is your password?

Andre Yoskowitz
7 Feb 2011 23:38

BusinessWeek has posted a nice concise report on how secure most passwords are, and how long it takes even hackers to guess it.
As it has been for years, the most popular password is "123456," followed by "password," "12345678," "qwerty," and "abc123."
The following is how long it takes for a hacker to randomly guess your password:

Length: 6 characters
Lowercase: 10 minutes
+ Uppercase: 10 hours
+ Nos. & Symbols: 18 days
Length: 7 characters
Lowercase: 4 hours
+ Uppercase: 23 days
+ Nos. & Symbols: 4 years
Length: 8 characters
Lowercase: 4 days
+ Uppercase: 3 years
+ Nos. & Symbols: 463 years
Length: 9 characters
Lowercase: 4 months
+ Uppercase: 178 years
+ Nos. & Symbols: 44,530 years

Furthermore, the report says it costs a company $10 to take a phone call that will eventually require a password reset.
30 percent of all help desk calls are password related, and 50 percent of all users make their password a "common word or simple key combination."