Even if you generate strong passwords and make sure they are as secure as possible, hackers can still get their hands on them. In addition to cracking your password, hackers can:

• breach an online service you use and steal your pass­word from there

• use a virus to log your key­strokes as you log in

• trick you into giving your pass­word to them with a phishing scam or social engineering

• buy pass­words from another hacker on an online black market

Modern hacking is a highly automated activity that targets millions of users at the same time. That’s why you should use one pass­word only for one account, instead of using the same ones on different accounts. Even if someone gets your pass­word, they can log into only a single account. Your other accounts are safe.

Learn more from our article: How account take­over happens.

The tool automatically calculates pass­word entropy. Pass­word entropy indicates how easy it is for a pass­word cracking soft­ware to guess a pass­word. The more pass­words the soft­ware has to try before guessing the pass­word the higher the entropy is.

The calculation is an assessment of how difficult it is to crack the pass­word with methods commonly used by hackers. These include brute force cracking and dictionary attacks. Based on the mathematical result, the tool defines pass­word strength as weak, medium, strong, or super strong.

The stronger the pass­word is, the longer it takes for hackers to get the right result using programs that test even millions of alternatives in a second. Theoretically, it’s possible to crack any pass­word. However, with a strong enough pass­word it could still take millions of years.

A strong password can be cracked, but you can make it virtually impossible for criminals. Hackers use programs to crack passwords. They can try out millions of alternatives in a second. That’s why passwords should be long and complex. If your password is strong enough, it could take millions of years to crack it with current technology. However, even if you use a strong password generator for creating your secure passwords, criminals can still steal them, or trick you into giving them away.