If you use 256 AES encryption with a 50 character password how long...

[LFCJohnSmith]

would a brute force attack take to crack the code if you used alpha numeric as well as special symbols?

I have been lead to believe that it would take a super computer many many years to crack but I am not to sure of this so can you please help to shed some light on this.

My reason for wanting to know this is because I used bitlocker and WinZip to encrypt my drives and folders, and they both use AES 256 encryption. I know that every type of security is breakable given time, effort and the will to do it, but what would be the time frame for this scenario.

Regards

AF

 

[Yami]

Hundreds of years, with current computing technology. Though as computing power increases, that number will lower dramatically. And we'd probably find a way to nullify the encryption before actually decrypting it.

 

[LFCJohnSmith]

Hundreds of years, with current computing technology. Though as computing power increases, that number will lower dramatically. And we'd probably find a way to nullify the encryption before actually decrypting it.

So would that be for a normal home PC or a super computer that would take so long?

Would the people who created the encryption technolgy have the ability to crack the code much quicker or is it a case of once the encryption is there it is there for everyone?

 

[patonb]

Isn't it all about the encryption algerthym? Like WEP, it was 128bit, but the encryption was flawed, and easily broke.

So while brute/dictionary cracking was a ong process, the cracked encryption takes seconds now.

 

[LFCJohnSmith]

Don't all AES 256 encryption use the same algorthyms?