Having a unique and hard-to-guess PIN could make all the difference, so here’s what to avoid when picking a PIN.
In today’s world, there are few things as important as your PIN, which allows you to access your bank account and withdraw or deposit cash instantly.
For hackers and thieves, one of the easiest ways to steal money is through figuring out someone’s PIN, meaning that making your PIN unique and difficult to guess is an absolute must.
With that being said, some people seemingly can’t be bothered to go through the hassle of remembering a unique four-digit code and may use a simple combo for their PIN.
This, unsurprisingly, leaves them susceptible to getting stolen from.
Using a weak PIN could leave you vulnerable to getting your money stolen. (Pixabay)
Even beyond just your bank information, PINs are often used to lock people out of things like phones, safes, and lockers. If your PIN is common enough for someone to guess, these things can also be at risk of theft, as well.
Recently, data analysis released by Nick Berry of DataGenetics calculated the most common PINs in existence, with the top ten most common PINs following patterns that you should avoid to remain secure.
The most common PIN was, you guessed it, 1234, which clearly follows the pattern of numerical order. However, beyond that, it is repeated numbers that one should avoid using. PINs like 7777, 1111, or 0000 are frequent and easily guessable by a potential hacker or thief.
The most common PINS
- 1234
- 1111
- 0000
- 1212
- 7777
- 1004
- 2000
- 4444
- 2222
- 6969
Other patterns, such as codes that are derived from somebody’s birthday, are generally less risky but should also be avoided in case the wrongdoer knows your birthday and can decipher your PIN from there. Birth years should be avoided as well, with 2000 making the top 10 list of frequent codes and 2001 making it into the top 20.
According to Berry, the top 20 most common PINs made up roughly 26.83% of the total 3.4 million PINs that were used for this analysis.
As for the least used PIN, 8068 takes the cake in this study, as it was only seen 25 times across the 3.4 million PINs. Furthermore, the 20 least common PINs, unsurprisingly, have few distinguishable patterns among them outside of the fact that none of them begin with the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5.
A graph showing the most and least common PINs. (DataGenetics/InformationIsBeautiful)
Least common PINS:
- 8557
- 8438
- 9539
- 7063
- 6827
- 0859
- 6793
- 0738
- 6835
- 8093
While knowing what common PINs to avoid is a useful statistic, Berry warned against using the numbers on his list of least common PINs, as well–especially 8068.
“Hackers can read too!” Berry reminded. “They will also be promoting 8068 up their attempt trees in order to catch people who read this (or similar) articles.”