Why is a password with both numbers and letters stronger than one with only letters? Attackers will include numbers in their brute force attempts anyway, so how does it make a difference?

Question

Why is a password with both numbers and letters stronger than one with only letters? Attackers will include numbers in their brute force attempts anyway, so how does it make a difference?

In: Technology

Answer 1

Brute force often involves dictionary attacks, which is literally using words and combination of words from a dictionary. As soon as you introduce numbers, symbols, mixed case you make that type of brute force attack exponentially more challenging.