Super Computers: How Fast Can Passwords Be Tested?
Now, or in the near future, processors may be able to test 100 million passwords every second. It isn’t incredible to imagine that some organisations (usually countries) would have machines containing a million processors. Such super computers could check 100 x 1012 (100 billion) passwords every second. Such a machine could crack 56 bit encryption in about 12 minutes. However, such a machine would take 107,902,830,708,060,000 years (107,902 billion years) to examine every possibility in 126 bit encryption. It seems likely that 126 bit encryption will be resistant to ” brute force” (trying every possible password) for a long time to come! While I can imagine such a computer costing several hundred million dollars, it may be possible to build one considerably cheaper (although it would still probably be beyond the reach of all but large organisations). It would take a Super Computer 1 year to find all possible passwords in a 72 bit encryption using all (256) Windows’ characters. If the o
