Most password protection methods rely on multiple rounds of hash iterations to slow down brute-force attacks. Even the fastest processors choke when trying to break a reasonably strong password. Video cards can be used to speed up the recovery with GPU acceleration, yet the GPU market is currently overheated, and most high-end video cards are severely overpriced. Today, we’ll test a bunch of low-end video cards and compare their price/performance ratio.

Today, we have an important date. It’s been 13 years since we invented a technique that reshaped the landscape of modern password recovery. 13 years ago, we introduced GPU acceleration in our then-current password recovery tool, enabling the use of consumer-grade gaming video cards for breaking passwords orders of magnitude faster.

If you care about password cracking, hardware acceleration or Wi-Fi protection this interview with our friend Sethioz is certainly for you. Being currently a freelance security tester Sethioz kindly shared his experience in cracking passwords using video cards, which in its turn derived from his gaming interest in cards. His personal experience may be very helpful to those whose concern about password cracking is not trivial.

ElcomSoft had a great time overseas in the US, first at Techno Security Conference in Myrtle Beach, SC and later at AMD Fusion Developer Summit in Bellevue, WA. So it happened to be quite a long visit to the US full of preparations, talks, meetings, new acquaintances, parties and positive emotions (sun and ocean did their work). 

Tom’s Hardware is a really good source we can definitely trust, so if you need more details on Radeon HD 5000-series cards (specifications and prices) that are coming soon, just read:

Looking for new password cracking hardware (to take advantage of GPU acceleration)? Wait just a little bit more: new ATI and NVIDIA cards (with DirectX 11) will be available soon.

Just about two weeks ago, ATI has introduced the fastest GPU yet: FirePro V8750. 800 shader engines, 115.2 GB/s memory bandwidth, 2 GB frame buffer memory (GDDR5), two DisplayPort outputs, one DVI output. Thinking about purchasing it? The cost is as high as $1,800. More details at Tom’s Hardware.

Not long ago I wrote about AMD’s TWKR when the first rumors reached the media. Now we have more news on that. And the sad one is that TWKR still cannot be purchased in retail and most probably won’t be, at least not the ones from the sought-after 100 exemplars that exist today.