Brute force attacks are one strategy whereby hackers attempt to access systems. A common brute force attack is to attempt to guess passwords. By requiring users have complex passwords—complexity being defined by length and different types of characters—system administrators can minimize the potential that brute force attack will guess the password. In the example pictured, here the password is 17 characters (the minimum is usually 8), and the password includes uppercase letters, lowercase letters, numerals, and punctuation marks. At it is estimated it would take today’s hackers a very long time to guess it. Many password complexity rules prevent the use of words found in dictionaries as brute force password hackers often base their attacks on dictionary entries. Complex passwords really do improve network security.
