Can e-mail accounts be hacked using Brute Force Attacks ?

[debdutta]

I was going through topics of how to prevent from being hacked and came to know that a technique called Brute force attack can be used to search for all possible codes even if it is not a dictionary word. I just wanted to know that can anyone's including my e-mail account be hacked by brute force attacks. Is it has to do anything with SSL encryption as Gmail and most of them provides SSL.

Thanks, Please reply with your suggestions to protect against this technique.

 

[LiquidSnak]

If your user name is known, a brute force attack can get into pretty much anything, it's just a matter of time. Though, most sites have things to prevent that, such as a lockout after X attempts that are wrong.

This is why special characters are good in passwords.