It’s the least popular!
How easy would it be for a thief to guess your four-digit PIN? If he were forced to guess randomly, his odds of getting the correct number would be one in 10,000—or, if he has three tries, one in 3,333. But if you were careless enough to choose your birth date, a year in the 1900s, or an obvious numerical sequence, his chances go up. Way up.
Researchers at the data analysis firm Data Genetics have found that the three most popular combinations—”1234,” “1111,” and “0000″—account for close to 20 percent of all four-digit passwords. Meanwhile, every four-digit combination that starts with “19″ ranks above the 80th percentile in popularity, with those in the late—er, upper—1900s coming in the highest. Also quite common are MM/DD combinations—those in which the first two digits are between “01″ and “12″ and the last two are between “01″ and “31.” So choosing your birthday, your birth year, or a number that might be a lot of other people’s birthday or birth year makes your password significantly easier to guess.
On the other end of the scale, the least popular combination—8068—appears less than 0.001 percent of the time. (Although, as Data Genetics acknowledges, you probably shouldn’t go out and choose “8068″ now that this is public information.) Rounding out the bottom five are “8093,” “9629,” “6835,” and “7637,” which all nearly as rare.
Data Genetics came up with the numbers by analyzing a database of 3.4 million stolen passwords that have been made public over the years. Most of these are passwords for websites. But by looking specifically at those that comprise exactly four characters, all of which are numerals, the researchers figured they could get a decent proxy for ATM PINs as well.
You better hurry up before 8068 becomes more popular. Fortunately, I use numbers I have made up in my mind, like λ~σ>.
“But Anthony,” you say, “if you made them up in your mind, they won’t be reflected on the keypads at an ATM.”
Thought of that, smart aleck. I translate my numbers into what I call quotidian digits. I then reverse them, add them all up, then take that single number, multiply it by 757, lop off the last digit of that figure, and voilá! I have my ATM pin number.
Which is 1234. Can’t figure out how that happens for the life of me…
Jerry
September 20, 2012 at 10:34 AM
That’s the exact combination I have on my luggage! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K95SXe3pZoY
Anthony Sacramone
September 20, 2012 at 10:42 AM
You can never go wrong with Spaceballs… If only the war-torn nations of the world understood this…
Dan at Necessary Roughness
September 20, 2012 at 5:13 PM
…because good is dumb.
I wonder how many IBM employees had 8088 or 8086 for their PINsback in the day…