Offline Password Attacks Getting Easier and Easier

Ars Technica describes how an updated cracking tool leverages the parallel-processing power of GPUs to attack long passwords. Given the amount of money being poured into "whole drive encryption" and other techniques that require the passwords' hashes to be stored with the encrypted data, advances in offline attacks have real relevance to those concerned about real security.

The Jaded Consumer advocates multiple-factor authentication for security.