How Much Time Does A Hacker Take To Crack Passwords? Paytm CEO Answers

Paytm founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma posted  about the importance of passwords and how long it takes a hacker to crack them. 

Mr Sharma said that it is the length of the password that matters the most. He has shared a detailed chart on X - formerly known as Twitter. The note attached to it read, “It is the length of the password that matters most. Add a few small caps alphabets too to make one.”

For number-only passwords, the time taken by a hacker can vary from “instantly to six days” depending on its characters. 

For lowercase letters, hackers can immediately crack the password if its length is between four and eight letters. 

Not to forget, if your password is of 4 characters, hackers can crack it instantly. 

For passwords with characters including numbers, and upper and lowercase letters, the time taken to crack an 18-character password is 2tn years. For passwords that carry numbers, upper and lowercase letters, and symbols – the time taken is 26tn years. 

The post has spread like wildfire on the social media platform.  People made a bee-line to the reply box to drop in their queries. 

A user asked, “So you mean our credit card or debit card pin, which can also be counted as a password, can be hacked easily?”

Another said, “But most mobile apps provide just 4 numbers to select.”

A person wanted to know, “What is the interval wait time between each password try? In the case of any online sites, there is a prevention of ddos attacks on top of at least a 200ms delay for each password check. It could take decades for a 8 char password in such a scenario.”

Some of them have thanked Mr Sharma for sharing the information.