why use 128 bits to protect

James+Stephen

why use 128 bits to protect

Could an Alien Civilization Crack Your Password? And Would They Even Care?

We’ve all heard the advice: Use strong passwords. Encrypt your data. 128-bit AES is secure. But what if an unfathomably advanced civilization—one that stores data at the atomic level—decided to crack your 16-byte password? Could they do it? And more importantly… would they even bother?

The Physics of Breaking AES-128

Let’s say “they” (some godlike alien superintelligence) can store 1 bit per atom. That’s the ultimate limit of classical information density—no wasted space, no inefficiency, just raw atomic-scale engineering.

  • 1 bit per silicon atom means a single cubic centimeter could hold ~5×10²² bits (~6 zettabytes).
  • But to brute-force a 128-bit key, they’d need to store 2¹²⁸ possible combinations—that’s 3.4×10³⁸ bits.

Do the math:

  • They’d need a solid cube of pure silicon larger than Manhattan (6,800 cubic kilometers).
  • Mass? 15.8 trillion metric tons—more than all human-made structures on Earth combined.

So yes, in theory, they could. But here’s the catch…

Why They Wouldn’t Bother

  1. Energy Cost: Assembling that much matter requires dismantling planets. If they can do that, your password is the least interesting problem in the universe.
  2. They’d Have Better Tricks: If they’re manipulating atoms like LEGO, they likely have:
    • Quantum sniffers (extract keys from EM radiation).
    • Spacetime hacks (read data before it was encrypted).
    • Pure omniscience (they already know everything).
  3. You’re a Speck of Dust: To a civilization that advanced, humanity is less than background noise. Your secrets are meaningless.

The Real Takeaway

AES-128 isn’t just “secure.” It’s physically impossible to break within our known universe. Even if some hyper-advanced species could, the effort is so absurd that they’d never waste time on it.

So sleep easy. Your password is safe—not because it’s unbreakable, but because anyone who could break it has far stranger things to do.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go change my laptop password from “123456” to something slightly less guessable…

Thoughts? Drop a comment below—or better yet, encrypt it with AES-128 and see if the aliens reply. 🔐👽

By the way, if we use the AES-256, then, AES-256 has 2²⁵⁶ possible keys. That’s: 115 quattuorvigintillion (a 1 followed by 77 zeros). Roughly the number of atoms in the observable universe, squared. Even though using a blackhold storage technology, it seems impossible to store such a large number of data.