I don't entirely understand the process so I am wondering if someone here can explain it to me. I want to better understand these things so I know how to better protect myself and my family. I think it is important to understands the basics of things like this so you can spot vulnerabilities in your own day to day use online.
Brute forcing passwords involves systematically trying all possible combinations of characters until the correct one is found. This method can be simple - trying every combination in sequence, or it can use wordlists in dictionary attacks to guess common passwords. Tools like John the Ripper and Hashcat automate this process. While effective, brute force attacks are time-consuming and can be mitigated by using strong passwords, implementing account lockout mechanisms, rate limiting login attempts, and employing multi-factor authentication. This is why I always push using better security to prevent brute force attacks.
Unfortunately, there is software that has made this so much easier for people with minimal hacking skills to take advantage of. It isn't as good as knowing how to do it yourself but it still has made this more of an issues. Thankfully 2FA and other security measures are more mainstream now which prevents most of this.