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How Common Is Your PIN? (datagenetics.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the more-human-than-human-is-our-motto dept.

phantomfive writes: We've seen password frequency lists, here is an analysis of PIN frequency with a nice heatmap towards the bottom. There is a line for numbers starting with 19*, which is the year of birth, a cluster around MM/DD for people's birthdays, and a hard diagonal line for the same digit repeated four times.

9 of 114 comments (clear)

  1. hey, if you type in your pw, it will show as stars by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    (Cthon98) hey, if you type in your pw, it will show as stars
    (Cthon98) ********* see!
    (AzureDiamond) hunter2
    (AzureDiamond) doesnt look like stars to me
    (Cthon98) (AzureDiamond) *******
    (Cthon98) thats what I see
    (AzureDiamond) oh, really?
    (Cthon98) Absolutely
    (AzureDiamond) you can go hunter2 my hunter2-ing hunter2
    (AzureDiamond) haha, does that look funny to you?
    (Cthon98) lol, yes. See, when YOU type hunter2, it shows to us as *******
    (AzureDiamond) thats neat, I didnt know IRC did that
    (Cthon98) yep, no matter how many times you type hunter2, it will show to us as *******
    (AzureDiamond) awesome!
    (AzureDiamond) wait, how do you know my pw?
    (Cthon98) er, I just copy pasted YOUR ******'s and it appears to YOU as hunter2 cause its your pw
    (AzureDiamond) oh, ok.

    - http://bash.org/?244321

  2. At least my pin 8068 is safe by mdsolar · · Score: 4, Funny

    Oh, wait...

    1. Re:At least my pin 8068 is safe by plover · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Which is monumentally STUPID! That leads to people writing it down just so they can remember it. I can see my idiot brother even writing it on the card so he doesn't have to remember it!

      People get all panicked about "writing down their passwords." I have never seen a case where a hacker was able to reach through the internet and shoulder surf that piece of paper. Offline analog storage has a much better security profile than the average bureaucrat's Excel spreadsheet full of passwords.

      Sure, local attacks on the paper are possible, but extremely rare when compared to online attacks. Paper records have a much lower risk profile.

      --
      John
    2. Re: At least my pin 8068 is safe by cloudmaster · · Score: 4, Funny

      I have a Post-It stuck to the bottom of my keyboard with the word "pa$$word1" written on it, and have for years. I like to imagine that one day someone will try logging in to my account with that, thinking to themselves "wow, the sysadmin has a terrible password" just before it doesn't work.

      It's the little things that get you through the day...

    3. Re: At least my pin 8068 is safe by KGIII · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You should find a way to use it as the duress password so that, if used, it sets off a loud klaxon alarm complete with the brilliant strobing lights. It would be awesome.

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
  3. Super old blog by MrLogic17 · · Score: 4, Informative

    I thought this blog posting on PIN numbers looked familiar - then I looked at the publish date. September 3rd, 2012.

    Um, guys?

  4. This is why I use... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    the last for digits of Pi for my PIN.

  5. Interesting by jbmartin6 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Just a quick overview, but it appears the selection of PINs obeys Benford's Law

    --
    This posting is provided 'AS IS' without warranty of any kind, implied or otherwise.
  6. Looks like it's 1234 by spiritplumber · · Score: 4, Funny

    incredible! it's the same PIN as my luggage!

    --
    Liberty - Security - Laziness - Pick any two.