How to Move Beyond Passwords and Basic MFA It's not a question of whether passwordless is coming -- it's simply a question of when. How should your organization prepare? (Part two of a two-part series.) This is the second of a two-part series about the evolution of passwords. Earlier this week, what a passwordless world looks like and how organizations can transition to a passwordless framework. (Image: Song_about_summer via Adobe Stock) Once upon a time, an eight-character password was all that was needed to protect a system. Cracking a password could take years. Of course, more powerful computers and more advanced algorithms came along and cut two ways: Today it takes no more than two-and-a-half hours to crack an eight-digit password using advanced algorithms and a brute force approach. In fact, the fastest processors can digest a mind-boggling 102.8 billion hashes every second.