Brute force attack means a repeated login attempt by criminals using every possible method like; letter, characters, number, and other combinations to guess a password.
The attacker uses this technique to get one of the three things: an administrator password, a password hash key, or an encryption key. Getting a short password can be easy or simple, but that isn’t the case for longer password or encryption keys—the challenge for brute force attacks is immense when it comes to breaking a longer password.
If you repeatedly hit a box which is locked from inside, it may open up due to the impact. This is the same logic that applies with brute force. The hacker will try every possible key combination, or use a dictionary of the most common passwords to gain access into the network.
Brute force is not only dangerous for web applications, but even for encrypted databases, password-protected documents, and other secure data too. All valuable data are not safe and it can be stolen in a brute force attack, whether it’s available online or downloaded to an attacker’s computer.
It’s vital that cybersecurity professionals should know the risks associated with brute force attacks. One should know about this classic form of cybersecurity attack, how safe you are, and how to defend your systems against brute force attacks.
Whichever method an attacker chooses, to perform a brute force attack the processing power needed can be intense, especially with modern encryption techniques. Attackers have turned to specialized hardware technique that looks like a cryptocurrency mining rig.
Cryptocurrency mining and Brute-force attacks are essentially the same things: Brute force computing power is used to manually crack the encryption. That means the hardware needed to perform either with any degree of efficiency is the same—graphics processing units (GPUs) and application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) designed for cryptocurrency use.
GPUs and cryptocurrency are designed to handle large loads of repetitive tasks, and that is exactly what a brute force attacker needs. It doesn’t mean that every hacker who uses brute force attack applies this technique, but those serious hackers will go to any extent to if they want to steal data.
Brute force attacks are not possible for an individual if he is trying it manually, which is why there are a number of popular programs available over the years, for legitimate purposes, but unfortunately, they are used for illicit use.