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Most common PIN codes (2012)

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Re: Most common PIN codes (2012)

#51

Post by shultays »

eqvinox wrote: post #40

I moved to Switzerland, and, well, PIN codes for credit cards are 6 digits here by default. And now I'm asking myself why noone else does this. I don't see hordes of Swiss people complaining about being unable to remember a 6-digit PIN at least.

Because (I imagine) you can't really brute force it. If you only have 3 or something tries, it doesn't really make that much of a difference.

And the person that stole your card would just try 123456 instead of 1234 etc and roughly would have a similar chance of success

Re: Most common PIN codes (2012)

#52

Post by toast0 »

eqvinox wrote: post #40

I moved to Switzerland, and, well, PIN codes for credit cards are 6 digits here by default. And now I'm asking myself why noone else does this. I don't see hordes of Swiss people complaining about being unable to remember a 6-digit PIN at least.

One of my credit unions gives out (randomized) five digit pins (although they say if you use an atm that only accepts four digit pins, the first four is enough). My other credit union only does four digits.

I think remembering one 6-digit PIN would be fine, but in the US, it's common to have many banking relationships. If I needed a pin for every credit card, I'd have to write them on the cards or set them all the same.

Re: Most common PIN codes (2012)

#53

Post by shultays »

dyingkneepad wrote: post #30

TIL brute-forcing from 0000 to 9999 is a decent strategy.

In (game) Rust, the players can use 4 digit keylocks to secure their bases and brute forcing is indeed a strategy. The lock zaps and eventually kills you but even with that, a determined player can eventually get in.

Re: Most common PIN codes (2012)

#54

Post by eqvinox »

shultays wrote: post #51
eqvinox wrote: post #40

I moved to Switzerland, and, well, PIN codes for credit cards are 6 digits here by default. And now I'm asking myself why noone else does this. I don't see hordes of Swiss people complaining about being unable to remember a 6-digit PIN at least.

Because (I imagine) you can't really brute force it. If you only have 3 or something tries, it doesn't really make that much of a difference. And the person that stole your card would just try 123456 instead of 1234 etc and roughly would have a similar chance of success

Valid point.

That said, guessing the PIN isn't the only attack; longer PINs also means that you have to "spy" more digits, which can be significant if the "spying" method is not 100% reliable.

But yeah. I guess it doesn't matter as long as you have a lockout mechanism.

Re: Most common PIN codes (2012)

#55

Post by eqvinox »

toast0 wrote: post #52
eqvinox wrote: post #40

I moved to Switzerland, and, well, PIN codes for credit cards are 6 digits here by default. And now I'm asking myself why noone else does this. I don't see hordes of Swiss people complaining about being unable to remember a 6-digit PIN at least.

One of my credit unions gives out (randomized) five digit pins (although they say if you use an atm that only accepts four digit pins, the first four is enough). My other credit union only does four digits. I think remembering one 6-digit PIN would be fine, but in the US, it's common to have many banking relationships. If I needed a pin for every credit card, I'd have to write them on the cards or set them all the sa…

Not sure how this is handled in Switzerland, and I don't have good data on this, but I'd say a lot of people in Europe have at least a debit and a credit card with a PIN each.

Also nothing says you can't use the same PIN for multiple cards; they're essentially the same security domain anyway ("a piece of plastic in your wallet") — most people don't have "more" and "less" trustworthy cards…

Re: Most common PIN codes (2012)

#56

Post by toast0 »

eks391 wrote: post #44
iNic wrote: post #3

I think the least common PIN codes are fascinating. I'm surprised by the number of 7s in these. They looks like numbers you would end up with if you asked someone to think of a random 4 digit number. List transcribed by ChatGPT: 8557, 8438, 9539, 7063, 6827, 0859, 6793, 0738, 6835, 8093, 9047, 0439, 8196, 6693, 7394, 9480, 8398, 7637, 9629, 8068.

During tax season (in US), for security, you may optionally create a 5 digit pin. I wanted mine to be unaffiliated with any existing pin I have, and chose a 'random' number and wrote it down. A year later I repeated this (and had long since forgotten the previous pin), went to go write it in the same place, and saw that both 'random' numbers had the same first four digits. I now use a computer to choose random number…

I thought the self selected PIN for filing a return was required for online filing, and that it was just an indicator of intent, like a signature.

Does it serve a security function? Am I supposed to remember what it is?

I know the IRS does have an identity protection PIN process, but that's separate.

Re: Most common PIN codes (2012)

#57

Post by xen2xen1 »

BLKNSLVR wrote: post #19

Funny/stupid anecdote: a bunch of my kids' friends have the same phone unlock PIN as me because I set my son's new phone PIN the same as mine so he would also be able to unlock my phone if necessary. When his friends started getting phones as well, they copied his. This has migrated through some of the friends' siblings as well.

One of my kids friends uses the same pin as I had when he was a kid. I would give him and my kid my debit card and they would go get pizza if they cleaned my office.

Re: Most common PIN codes (2012)

#58

Post by aidenn0 »

posix86 wrote: post #35

61 pins are used by 1/3rd of all people. So statistically, if I steal 61 debit cards, assuming I have 3 tries, and assuming people choose their own pin, I should be able to get cash off one in expectation.

18% of people use the top 3 pins, so you would need 6 cards to expect to get 1. 56 cards would give you an expectation of 10.
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