Immediately leave the password 8 characters or less. Now is the era of 12 character passwords, according to a report published this week by the Georgia Institute of Technology.

The researchers used cluster graphics card to solve the eight-character password and only takes less than two hours. But when researchers try to break down the 12-character password, then they discovered that it would take 17 134 years.

“The length of your passwords in some cases may dictate the vulnerability,” said Joshua Davis, a research scientist at Georgia Tech Research Institute.

“It’s hard to tell what will happen in the future, but for now, the 12-character password should be the standard,” said Richard Boyd, a senior research scientist who also worked on the project.

The researchers recommend the 12-character password than 11 or 13 characters. Because 12 the balance between “comfort and security.”

They assume a sophisticated hacker might try a combination of one billion passwords per second. In that scenario, it takes 180 years to crack 11-character password. But there’s a big leap when it added one more character because it takes 17 134 years

Tags: 12 digits, Password, Security, Technology