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Brute Force Research Paper

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Weak passwords are responsible for 76% of data breaches (Keeper Security Whitepaper). Cyber criminals have become much more sophisticated in the past few years at breaking passwords. Two major types of “cracking” methods are used: brute force and dictionary attacks. Brute force is “a trial and error method used by application programs to decode data such as passwords or Data Encryption Standards keys, through exhaustive effort”, thus the term brute force. It is similar to a thief trying multiple combinations to “crack” a safe. Dictionary attacks use large dictionaries, sometimes containing millions of words, to defeat passwords. This technique has been enhanced by the number of accounts that have been compromised in the past few years.

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