Even if you generate pass­words to 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 pass­word generator for creating your secure pass­words, criminals can still steal them, or trick you into giving them away.