PIN codes,... as easy as 1, 2, 3, 4
When you chose your pin code, did you choose one you could remember easily, or one that you thought no-one else could guess?
Amitay, a software developer for the iPhone, developed an application which allowed users to PINcode lock the phone's camera. The application collected these codes and reported them back to the developers who analysed the range of numbers used by 200,000 users. With ten thousand possible combinations to choose from, if people chose codes at random then we'd expect any single combination to be used by about 20 people on average, but with some random variation in amongst that. What Amitay found was that the choice of codes is shockingly far from random.
By far the commonest PIN code chosen was 1234 which was the choice of 8,800 users. Next came 0000, the choice of around 5,200 users, closely followed by 2580 which was used by 4,700 people and is the number you get if you select the four keys vertically down the middle of the phone keypad. These are followed in popularity by the codes 1111 and 5555, and then coming in at number six in the most-chosen list is 5683. This sounds like a strange number to choose until you realise that it is the key combination used to spell out the word LOVE on the standard phone handset. Rounding out the top ten are 0852 (the central keys again), 2222, 1212, and 1998. These ten codes combined accounted for a massive 15% of the total sample.
1998 was probably chosen because it was the user's year of birth, suggesting that they are now 13 years old and probably tells us something about the demographics of iPhone camera users, but interestingly, all the year numbers from 1980 and 2000 feature in the top hundred choices, as do many earlier year numbers.
Whilst this study was only using the PIN code for a specific iPhone application, it is likely that many people used the same PIN code as they use for their mobile phone, and probably for their video recorders, burglar alarm systems and credit cards too. With four digit PIN codes, and most point-of-sale machines offering three attempts before locking the card, you already have a 1 in 3,333 chance of guessing someone's PIN. By knowing just a little about a person, such as their year of birth, the chances are shortened considerably. Yet banks such as Barclays still publish this misleading advice on their website:
"Chip and PIN was introduced because while someone can forge your signature, they can’t forge your PIN."
24th June 2011
This article comes from the SKILLZONE email newsletter, published monthly since January 2008, and covering topics related to technology and the internet. All articles and artwork in the SKILLZONE newsletter are orignal content.