Robert Holtzman wrote: > > I was just about to comment on this. You beat me to it. In all the > different material I've read, everyone is fond of saying it would > take <insert huge number here> of years to break a strong password. > Statistically the odds of the first try being successful are not, as you > pointed out, zero and increase with each combination. Granted, it would > still take a hell of a long time but not the <insert huge number> years > people always claim. > you are not the only ones to notice this. perhaps a better metric would be the :odds of determining the actual password in a "reasonably short period" of time (say under 3 months). Now, I don't have the math behind me to even approach this problem. However, wouldn't similar large math problems (such as calculating the ofdds of a specific set of balls dropping for the powerball lotto that week) given you a better metric of how to calculate probability of success?
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