Our passwords are at risk — Artificial intelligence easily finds them

The rapid development of artificial intelligence technologies has put digital security systems to a serious test. Recent studies show that AI tools have the ability to guess even complex combined passwords within seconds. So, does this technological leap mean that we remain completely defenseless in the virtual world, that digital security has come to a complete end? 

Information Technology specialist Farid Amirov told Demokrat.az that although this issue is presented as the end of digital security, the reality is quite different:

“This does not show the extraordinary power of artificial intelligence, but rather the time taken to crack passwords in old and weak systems. In fact, artificial intelligence does not directly ‘read’ the password. It simply analyzes typical behavioral patterns used by people when choosing passwords and tries to find the correct combination by checking millions of possibilities in a very short time. For example, simple passwords like ‘name + birth year + symbol’ can be more easily guessed with this approach. Nevertheless, this technology does not completely break security. Because strong, randomly created, long and complex passwords are practically very difficult and time-consuming even for artificial intelligence. Additionally, most platforms have security mechanisms such as locking accounts after consecutive failed login attempts.”

He said that to stay safer, it is enough to follow a few basic principles: 

“Use long and complex passwords, choose different passwords for each account, activate two-factor authentication (2FA), and take advantage of password managers. As a result, artificial intelligence may increase the speed of attacks, but with proper cyber security habits, users can continue to effectively protect their data.”