We imagine that your cell phone or credit card PIN is not 1234 or 0000 (perhaps we assume it too much), but even if you do not use these easy combinations, it could be that your secret number is part of the 20 most common PINs and, Therefore, be those who test thieves when they have stolen your card or phone.
Let’s say your cell phone has been stolen and you have it protected with a PIN. The thief will try several numbers to see if he or she is lucky enough to get it right and access your information. And the same thing happens if they steal your wallet, the first thing they will do is go to an ATM to try to withdraw money, trying the most common PINs.
According to a study carried out years ago by Facebook data analyst Nick Berry with millions of data obtained from leaks, of the 10,000 possible combinations, there are 20 that represent 27% of all PINs that are used. Take note of the list and try to avoid the following numbers:
Most used PIN codes
1
1234 (10,713%)
2
1111 (6,016%)
3
0000 (1.881%)
4
1212 (1,197%)
5
7777 (0.745%)
6
1004 (0.616%)
7
2000 (0.613%)
8
4444 (0.526%)
9
2222 (0.516%)
10
6969 (0.512%)
11
9999 (0.451%)
12
3333 (0.419%)
13
5555 (0.395%)
14
6666 (0.391%)
15
1122 (0.366%)
16
1313 (0.304%)
17
8888 (0.303%)
18
4321 (0.293%)
19
2001 (0.290%)
20
1010 (0.285%)
Tricks that people use to decide the PIN
Many people look for PINs that are easy to remember, either because it coincides with their year of birth, the day of their birthday or some other key information, but they do not think that this date appears on the DNI. Many criminals already know that most of them start at 19 or 20.
Others establish it by the little drawing it forms when they enter it on the keyboard. One of the most popular is 2580, which is typed forming a straight vertical line with the central keys of the mobile phone or dataphone.
There are, however, those who choose sequential combinations of even numbers (2-4-6-8) or odd numbers (1-3-5-7), and they are not recommended either.
What are the most secure PIN codes?
Man using a mobile phone
Nick Berry’s analysis offers a very insightful graph of the most and least used PINs, and puts them all in a dotted chart, where the vertical axis is the first two digits of the PIN and the horizontal axis is the last two. The lighter the color of the dot, the more popular the code.
If you look closely, people usually choose low numbers, therefore, the expert recommends that both the first two digits of the PIN and the last two be a number greater than 50 (for example, 61-75, 94-76 or 59-82 ).
What is the least popular PIN and therefore the most difficult to guess?
According to the study, the answer is 8068, with only 25 occurrences in 3.4 million (this is equivalent to 0.000744%, a ridiculous percentage). Below, we offer you the 20 least used PIN codes of the 10,000 possible combinations:
Less used PIN codes
1
8557 (0.001191%)
2
9047 (0.001161%)
3
8438 (0.001161%)
4
0439 (0.001161%)
5
9539 (0.001161%)
6
8196 (0.001131%)
7
7063 (0.001131%)
8
6093 (0.001131%)
9
6827 (0.001101%)
10
7394 (0.001101%)
11
0859 (0.001072%)
12
8957 (0.001042%)
13
9480 (0.001042%)
14
6793 (0.001012%)
15
8398 (0.000982%)
16
0738 (0.000982%)
17
7637 (0.000953%)
18
6835 (0.000953%)
19
9629 (0.000953%)
20
8093 (0.000893%)
21
8068 (0.000744%)
If you use one of these PIN codes, it will be a little more secure. However, this does not mean that it has to be the only security measure that you have activated. Two-factor authentication and biometric unlocking may be a good option to activate, if you haven’t already.
This article was originally published on RAC1.
#PIN #numbers #change #easiest #guess
