Brute Force Attack:

A brute force attack is a trial-and-error method that cyber attackers use to decrypt a user’s sensitive data. Using this technique, the attacker attempts to guess the user’s password by trying every possible combination of characters like numbers and words. Naturally, this process starts with simple characters and slowly moves into a complex combination. Moreover, these attacks are slow and not so efficient due to those heap of possibilities.

Countermeasures: One of the best measures is to enforce a strong password, i.e., using a mix of numbers, letters, and special characters. Also, people need to change their passwords regularly.

Dictionary Attack:

A dictionary attack is more advanced. During this—rather than trying all combinations—the attacker will use a ready-built list of commonly used words and numbers to guess the user password. These attacks typically target the easy-to-be-cracked passwords. So, passwords based on personal information such as birthdates and names are vulnerable and are easily compromised.

Countermeasures: To mitigate dictionary attacks, we should spread awareness about the importance of maintaining a password that is not easily guessable.