@ecksmc
Aside from brute force attempts, its all about SOCIAL ENGINEERING.
Even Kevin Mitnick used social engineering to give him the essential to get into NASA networks.
Any information gained, means a brute force attempt can be narrowed down to reduce time taken or increase chance of success.
This is why random password generators are so good, because they take out any subconscious error of personal data inclusion.
That & hardware authenticators like YubiKey's (or very least 2FA).