i am not an expert on encryption, but i keep seeing various programs proclaiming very large estimated times for encryption to be cracked. i have seen many estimated times of thousands of years or more to crack encryption, but a mere few hundred years ago computers didnt exist but fast forward to the present time and we have made advances. i find it very hard to believe with any confidence its possible, yet we still put a lot of faith in claims (unproven) of very large numbers.
Even with a quantum computer, AES-256 remains safe assuming a safe password due to the ridiculously high numbers involved.
part of my point was its very difficult to predict the near future for example the next 10 years ir less and when claims are made of very large numbers its speculation of what will happen. nobody can say when the next advance will be or even what it might be and possibly provide any help.
So, in that case, don't worry about it. As breakthroughs occur in password cracking they will become public knowledge and you can take the appropriate steps, if necessary. Your 16+ digit password is good for a while yet. The Mathematics of (Hacking) Passwords https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-mathematics-of-hacking-passwords/
What gets me is these math analysis scenarios give the amount of time it would take to go through every possible password combination. They just give the total number of possible combinations and how much time it would take to check them all. That's not a realistic number. If these analysis are so sophisticated they should show how long it would take on average to guess the correct password. Someone may guess it in an hour, some may not guess it in their lifetime.
Yes, the mathematics of cracking a password are only relevant if the password has high entropy. The problem is that password cracking tools are getting very sophisticated at predicting how humans create passwords. A 16+ character password that is generated randomly will be unbreakable for a long time to come but if you create something that an average (or even above average?) human can actually remember then it will probably be worthless in about 5 years.
