How The Bible Is Helping Crack Your Passwords

How The Bible Is Helping Crack Your Passwords

The Bible might not be quite the good book it claims to be. According to an Ars Technica report on the future of password-cracking, the holy book is being employed to help crack passwords to great effect.

The article explains how security researchers Kevin Young and John Dustin have been using books acquired from the
Project Gutenberg repository to help them create a massive database of words and phrases to help crack passwords. Feeding in the contents of The Bible, plenty of other books, and Wikipedia, then testing it on 344,000 passwords leaked from
intelligence firm Stratfor in 2011, the pair had great success. Ars Technica
explains:

Almost immediately, a flood of once-stubborn passwords revealed themselves. They included: “Am i ever gonna see your face again?” (36 characters), “in the beginning was the word” (29 characters), “from genesis to revelations” (26), “I cant remember anything” (24), “thereisnofatebutwhatwemake” (26), “givemelibertyorgivemedeath” (26), and “eastofthesunwestofthemoon” (25).

The article goes on to explain how the pair have been using YouTube, Twitter and other sources rich with data to add depth and complexity to their password-cracking techniques. Your accounts might not be quite as secure as you thought — especially if you’re keen on Bible references. [Ars Technica via Verge]

Picture: Ryk Neethling/Flickr


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