The Answer To Life, The Universe And EveryPIN

September 19, 2012

“42″
Arthur Dent

42

Oops, I’m having a Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy moment. Please return in 10 million years when I figure out what the question is….

…Ah yes…

What is the safest PIN number you can use?

8068.

Or at least it was until I just told you that! Or, more appropriately, Data Genetics discovered it to be so.

They’ve done a crazy amount of research, going through a set of 3.4 million 4 digit PIN codes, which showed that the number “8068″ came up a mere 25 times. Conversely, every fool’s favourite PIN – 1234 – had a frequency of close to 11%.

Hopefully you’re not that stupid and know that such an obvious PIN is easy to guess. I trust you also realise that 8086 is probably not so secure either now, along with your date of birth or the ages of your kids. When selecting a PIN choose numbers that have no personal meaning to you and then keep it to yourself.

In the meantime, use Data Genetic’s research to find out what other numbers you really should not be using.

Article by

Lee's non-technical background allows him to write about internet security in a clear way that is understandable to both IT professionals and people just like you who need simple answers to your security questions.

Lee has written 2879 awesome articles for us at Security FAQs

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