For example, it will only take an hour for a hacker to find a ten-character password made up entirely of numbers. By increasing the number of characters to 14, it could take them up to a year.

internet and privacy Why your eight-character email password is not safe anymore By leveraging today’s computing power, a password can be guessed in as little as 12 minutes.

LastPass will finally enforce a 12-character minimum master password An overdue safety upgrade after a major security meltdown.

A password expert has shown that passwords can be cracked by brute force four times faster than was previously thought possible. It's no magician's trick. Jeremi Gosney of the Stricture Consulting ...

Some Web sites only allow alphanumeric characters (letters and numbers) in their passwords. This invites bad passwords, lowering security for everyone.

Several readers of late have noticed that after entering an eight-character password in Mac OS X (for an installer, or other activities), any extra characters typed will be ignored. This ...

LastPass is enforcing longer 12-character master password for all users. The password manager will also cross-check passwords on the dark web.

In short, the system teaches the password to a part of your brain that you cannot physically access -- but it is still there in your subconscious, just waiting to be tapped.

As reported by Ars Technica, the easily available password breaker ocl-Hashcat-plus has received a series of improvements which allow it to accommodate passwords of up to 55 characters.