how to choose a good pin number

I recently read an excellent article by Sid Kirchheimer, Avoid PIN Chagrin, in the November 2012 issue of the AARP Bulletin. According to Kirchheimer, more digits are harder to steal. Kirchheimer advises using these guidelines to choose an easy to remember, yet hard to guess PIN: 1) Use the digits from a childhood phone number that is no longer in use. One would hope, of course, that fewer people choose “1234” to protect their checking accounts than to log in to random websites. And you'll never see this message again. 3) Use an easily remembered non-dictionary word or acronym to choose your numbers. For example one might chose the year in which one received his or her first kiss, or the date on which he or she got engaged. google_ad_width = 120; 2) Use a date that is special to you, such as 0601 for the date (June 1) that you first visited DisneyLand. Every eleventh dot on the leading diagonal is brighter corresponding to the quad numbers e.g. medicine, art, film, history, politics, ethics, and religion. A PIN like 93725493629364012641274 is very secure, but not very convenient to enter. Tricia has a Literature degree from Sonoma State University and has been a frequent wiseGEEK Researchers at the data analysis firm Data Genetics have found that the three most popular combinations—“1234,” “1111,” and “0000”—account for close to 20 percent of all four-digit passwords. On the other end of the scale, the least popular combination—8068—appears less than 0.001 percent of the time. PINS I have considered are dates of very long bike rides, and the sum of the area codes I have biked to. For example, if your PIN is 3282, you can add the phone number 555-923-3282, except use a local-looking phone number—not one with the fictitious 555 area code. Information on your tax refund from Indiana, Information on your tax refund from Michigan. All contents © 2020 The Slate Group LLC. google_ad_height = 600; ITRC: Working to Resolve Identity Theft, Amazon links are in affiliation with Amazon.com, This article is not intended to be specific advice. Keep these tips in mind to keep yourself and your family protected from PIN identity theft! Slate relies on advertising to support our journalism. Sid Kirchheimer has written a book, Scam-Proof Your Life: 377 Smart Ways to Protect You & Your Family from Ripoffs, Bogus Deals & Other Consumer Headaches (AARP), Here is a link to Kerchheimer's original article: Avoid PIN Chagrin. But Data Genetics found some circumstantial evidence to support its hypothesis that there are some strong correlations between the two. All rights reserved. One could also choose a PIN that reflects an important date in history. For example, the phrase “Four score and seven years ago” can be condensed into the code “4S7YA,” which using a numerical pad creates the PIN “47792.” Tricia lives in Northern California and is currently Join Slate Plus to continue reading, and you’ll get unlimited access to all our work—and support Slate’s independent journalism. It was pertinent enough to share with my clients and I've recapped it here: When choosing a PIN for your debit card, ATM card, or credit card, these are the most common errors that are made. Data Genetics came up with the numbers by analyzing a database of 3.4 million stolen passwords that have been made public over the years. Way up. Yes, your card probably has a fraudulent charge limit, but it can be difficult to prove that the charges are indeed fraudulent, especially if the thief was using your physical card and PIN number before you reported it stolen. Most of these are passwords for websites. google_ad_slot = "5720559519"; Research suggests thieves can guess one in five PINs by trying just three combinations. Keep your card covered when you have it out in public - thieves can use high powered cameras to snap a photo of the card (and therefore your account number). For instance, the combination “2580” was the 22nd-most popular in their data set. One could also choose a PIN that reflects an important date in history. One could also use the first two digits and the last two digits of a business telephone number for a PIN. Add a new fake contact, and hide your PIN within that contact's phone number. But if you were careless enough to choose your birth date, a year in the 1900s, or an obvious numerical sequence, his chances go up. Information on your tax refund from the IRS. People prefer even numbers to odd, so “2468” ranks higher than “1357.”, Far more passwords start with “1” than any other number. Rounding out the bottom five are “8093,” “9629,” “6835,” and “7637,” which all nearly as rare. 3) Use an easily remembered non-dictionary word or acronym to choose your numbers. PINs I have used were my Boy Scout Troop Number squared, gear combination of a favorite bike, and the year of birth of a favorite composer. For example one could use a PIN that reflects the end of a war, or the date a beloved book was published. working on her first novel. Check your credit card and bank statements the moment they arrive (or check your online account frequently). DataGenetics.com implies that the PIN number should not be easy to type on your keypad. As well, one’s social security number or phone number may be known. The owner of the website DataGenetics.com did a mathematical analysis on 3.4 million PIN numbers. 4444 5555. account for close to 20 percent of all four-digit passwords. Question any charge that you don't recognize, ESPECIALLY if it is a small charge, like $.25 or $1.00. Slate is published by The Slate Group, a Graham Holdings Company. Another choice would be a holiday one particularly enjoys like Halloween or St. Patrick’s Day. (In general, 4 - 6 inches) The readers can even scan the card through clothing and wallets. … Thieves often run a "test charge" on an account to see if the charge goes through unnoticed and then they come back and hit the card with multiple fraudulent charges. (Although, as Data Genetics acknowledges, you probably shouldn’t go out and choose “8068” now that this is public information.) A series of repeating numbers like 1111, or 2222 are also easy PIN codes to break. Thieves can easily guess your numbers if you make one of these mistakes: 1) Choosing your birth date. Some other interesting anedcotes from the data: For those who get a kick out of these sorts of things, Data Genetics’ blog post is worth perusing in full. PIN choice that seems resistant to breakage can be a number of businesses one needs to know. How can I Protect my Personal Information Online? Since it gets more difficult to keep in mind all the numbers one must remember, a PIN number should be memorable. Here, there’s always a trade-off between security and convenience. Also quite common are MM/DD combinations—those in which the first two digits are between “01” and “12” and the last two are between “01” and “31.” So choosing your birthday, your birth year, or a number that might be a lot of other people’s birthday or birth year makes your password significantly easier to guess. Weisman recommends mixing numbers and “letters” (as in the ones on the keypad) to get something that’s hard for people to guess but easier for you to remember. Just keep in mind that guessing isn’t the only way thieves can swipe your PIN or password. As well numbers in sequence for a PIN like 1234, or 2345 should be avoided. It is also time-consuming to replace the card and to update all of your card information for any automatic payments. For example, if one needs to call the cleaners or the kids’ school, and must know these numbers, then the last four digits of the number may make a good choice too. Kirchheimer advises using these guidelines to choose an easy to remember, yet hard to guess PIN: 1) Use the digits from a childhood phone number that is no longer in use. So “8068” alone—or whatever the equivalent is now that people know about “8068”—won’t protect you from ATM skimmers or hackers who breach the databases of sites that don’t encrypt users’ passwords. Choosing a personal identification number (PIN) for an ATM or credit card should take some consideration. This makes use of the concept of “hiding in plain sight.” They make poor choices for choosing a PIN. Another possible PIN choice is the birthday, either day and month, or month and year of a close friend, or of a distant ancestor. google_ad_client = "pub-4166420025940107"; Change your PIN every few months and especially after you have been heavily using the card in public or online. The bright line for the leading diagonal shows the repeated couplets that people love to use for their PIN numbers 0000 0101 0202 … 5454 5555 5656 … 9898 9999. People prefer even numbers to odd, so “2468” ranks higher than “1357.” Far more passwords start with “1” than any other number. You probably have your birth date exposed in more areas than you realize: your driver's license, Facebook, applications, and more! Choose different PIN numbers or passwords for different bank accounts. 2) An easy string of numbers, like 1234, 0000, 5555, 6789, and numbers which spell easy words, like 5683 (spells "love"), 3) The year of your birth (see #1 above!). When using an ATM or punching your number in a store cash register unit, cover your hand. Review your home and business with this self-assessment program that will help you understand and manage the risk of identity theft. Conversely, a PIN like 7 is very convenient to enter, but not very secure. Other Articles: Probably because those four numbers appear in a single column from top to bottom on a phone or ATM keypad. With identity theft rampant, it is important to choose a PIN that cannot be easily guessed. Guidelines For Choosing a PIN. Keep your card shielded, especially when someone is uncomfortably close to you - thieves now have card readers that can read your card wirelessly if they can get close enough to it. Half of all passwords are among the 426 most popular (out of 10,000 total). Your mobile phone probably has dozens or hundreds of contacts. Again these PIN codes are common and might be easily guessed. By joining Slate Plus you support our work and get exclusive content. In a distant second and third are “0” and “2.” For example, if one needs to call the cleaners or the kids’ school, and must know these numbers, then the last four digits of the number may make a good choice too. Remember that if your wallet is stolen you don't want to conveniently give the thief your card and your PIN. How easy would it be for a thief to guess your four-digit PIN? It can be a date that holds personal significance, but also private significance. Thus a PIN should not be chosen from a family members birthdates in any combination. For example one could use a PIN that reflects the end of … Also leave out numbers of close friends one frequently calls, as if a cellphone is stolen, these will show up in a call log. There are several ways to avoid choosing a PIN that a thief might reasonably be able to guess. You’ve run out of free articles. Some details are fairly easy to research, like family members’ ages or birthdates. He came up with these 20 most used PIN numbers: Kirchheimer has a list of the top 10 most common (and easily stolen) PINS that differs slightly by including these: Additionally, the DataGenetics.com site indicated that numbers that start with 19XX are popular PIN numbers and they appear in the top 20% of all pin numbers. Such as EDBL for Every Day Brings Love which would be 3325.

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