"Did you ever wonder how long it might take a program to crack your passwords?" Jim Hamm gets our attention. "Intel has a site wherein one can enter a password and it will tell you how long it would take. I checked two theoretical passwords I just made up, and here are the results:

jc*12#.....7.25 seconds

135791113151.... .007 seconds

"You'll note using upper and lower case symbols, letters and numbers took longer than a string of just numbers that is twice as long. But both were cracked mighty quickly.

"Don't use your real passwords, but you might check some passwords similar in style to your real ones to see how long a program might take to crack them.

"As a last test I contrived a password that looked mighty tough to me. Here's how long it took to crack it:

*q#$T23%$jim ....132 years!

And here's Jim's assessment, "Now, that last password would discourage all but the most dedicated cracker...(grin)."