Now imagine if you could use FIVE digits for something as important as a bank account.
this post was submitted on 14 May 2024
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Even more hilarious is the number of banks that have online login systems that have a maximum length of like 12 characters for the password.
and then the 2nd factor? Yeah that's just another password.
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I use 8! My mom called me ridiculous for doing that :(
It is! How long does it even take to type in 40320 digits?!?
I figure gotta be, at least 45 seconds!
She's right, 8 is not a very secure code.
You can see that 19xx line continue at 20xx too
Now someone tell me which pin is the least common one so we all can use it to be safe.
The fact that every 4-digit pin is in this picture shows quite well how these are pretty easy to crack.
Idk why you would be cracking a PIN code. They aren’t really typically used for online security (and shouldn’t be). And if your attacker is targeting you, the PIN code isn’t meant to stop them.
What it does stop is you finding a random card on the side of the street and finding the nearest ATM to withdraw all of the cash from.
which will lock the card after 3 tries, so even if you are using your birth year chances are they are not going to guess it
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My bank just gave me a random PIN number. Choosing my own was not an option.
I'd forget that so hard.
I used to be able to memorize random sequences of numbers when I was young, but my brain doesn't do that tedious shit any more.
Password manager is the way. It's recommended for all password related things anyway.
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Why is 1701 circled?
NCC-1701 is the ship designator of the Enterprise from Star Trek
This occurred to me right after I posted. But are there that many ST fans?
Yes. Dozens of us.
DOZENS!
It's pretty iconic and when you need to make a 4-digit pin quickly, it's something that stands out if you're a fan of the series. But as the heat map suggests, it may not be the most secure
I’m a fan of the series but it would never occur to me to use that as a pin.
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damn, 0451 is blocked from view :-(
hunter2?
*******
thats what I see
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There is also the original 'original source'. It includes a version of the picture without the labels and the axis flipped.
this is so much better. Always read the x axis before the y axis
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I wanna know what these black dots are. Forbidden numbers? Numbers the mind cannot guess?
Just the least used. 9805 for example. Mines dark orange and I wasn't even trying, I just made it a physical pattern rather than a number combo.
EDIT: You know, I bet 9805 is gaining popularity in countries that use the Day/:Month/:Year format. Aug 9th 2005 is the birthday of a fair number of adults, now.
There's text over mine, I have no idea how I did. Judging by surrounding stuff, I think I'm ok. The numbers are fairly random.
The bank gave me the code and I just memorized it, and never bothered to change it.
Anyone have a version of this that doesn't have anything overlayed on it?
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If the bank is going to make me memorize both a unique 10+ character password and a 4 digit pin, of course I'm going to make a dead easy PIN.
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Here's a question, would it be more secure to choose a rare pin number or a pin number that is extremely common (ignoring obviously bad ones like 1234, 4321, meme numbers, numbers with four repeating digits, etc)?
Logic suggests that picking a rare number is better than a common one, because common ones are the ones that people would try first when attempting a bruteforce attack. Yet at the same time, personally if I was trying to brute force a pin, I'd start with obvious choices like 1234, 4321, four repeating numbers and meme numbers, and then switch to alternating between common-rare-common-rare if I was trying to brute force a pin number (starting with the most common and most rare). That'd mean the pin numbers that are the most secure when it comes to brute force attacks would be somewhere in the middle.
Granted, 4-digit pin numbers aren't very secure considering there are a maximum of 10,000 combinations, and social engineering attacks like phishing mostly bypass the need to brute-force the combination entirely. As such, the effort would likely be inconsequential and pointless outside of not picking ridiculously bad pins like 1111, but I'm still curious.
If your goal is to access a random account as quickly as possible, why would you ever try anything other than the next most common PIN?
It's not like Vegas where longer odds = higher payout. Less common PIN just means any given account is less likely.to use it, and therefore it's less likely to be correct on any given attempt.
If you look at it another way, the brightness of each square on that grid is the probability that there is a prize inside. If you wanted the most prizes as quickly as possible, picking the darkest avsilsble square is always a bad choice.
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As you said, 4 digits is not enough to make something secure to a computer. 10,000 permutations is milliseconds of computation.The only reason it's at all secure for a credit card is because you're generally only using the PIN for in-person transactions where there are more practical limits on attempts (Narrator: "After 2 hours and 632 attempts, the cashier began to get suspicious..."), if not hard cut offs from the bank/processor for failed attempts. If we're being realistic, as long as your PIN isn't in the first 3-6 numbers they can try, it's probably secure enough in itself. Theives want low hanging fruit. Easier to try to social engineer your PIN then to manually brute force it. As long as you're avoiding the most obvious first attempt numbers, go ahead and use your dog's birthday or your childhood home's address. It's fine.
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White is most common and dark orange/grey are the least common? By how many standard deviations?
Very valid question, but honestly I hardly think it matters much in this context. It highlights people's patterns, and apparently humans are the worst to ask for random numbers.
On a side note, what's up with the hotspot at 5049?
Set all pins to 6806, got it.
Where is 4269 in this chart?
Up 42 and to the right 69, duh.
Looks pretty low ranking if I'm seeing the graph right.
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There's a noticeable bias to using 10,11, or 12 as either the 1st and 2nd or the 3rd and 4th digits too, especially where the other two digits are lower. Like 11XX, or XX12. Wonder if there's a conscious reason for that or just a notable unconscious human bias for some number combinations?
Here in Australia, post code is also common