It took researchers at Georgia Tech 2 hours using graphics cards to crack 8-character computer passwords.  This compares with the 17,000 years (149,022,000 hours) it would take them to crack 12-character passwords.

Bottomline:  With much of today’s consumerism taking place via usernames and passwords on the Internet, you may want to think twice about your current password, and perhaps extend it to a 12-character one if you haven’t already.

Source: CNN

Picture via fczuardi