Avoid Using Popular PIN Numbers

telcodad

If you are using these PIN numbers on your iOS or Android phone, change them immediately
These are the 50 PIN codes you need to avoid using on your iPhone.
By Alan Friedman, Phone Arena - May 24, 2025
https://www.phonearena.com/news/do-not-use-these-pin-numbers_id170732

PINs are important. You probably have a four-digit PIN to guard access to your phone, your bank account, and other online portals that you want to keep others away from. The problem, according to a report from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), is that the PINs most used are so popular that someone might be able to break into a phone they found or stole. ABC went to website “Have I Been Pwned” and analyzed 29 million PIN codes. What they found is pretty disturbing.

The most popular four-digit PIN is 1234 and is used as a code by one out of every ten of the millions of codes that ABC looked at. The second most popular PIN is 0000 followed closely by 1111. People are lazy and don’t want to have to tax their brains to remember a PIN so they will repeat the same number. The problem is, the bad guys might be able to figure this out and break into a device. ….

RayGeode

telcodad

I still use the first PIN code the bank gave me for ATM way back when. Easy to remember as it was a popular INTEL processor.

My wife’s latest return from extended trip found her IPad asking for her 6 digit PIN code She could not remember she had been relying on facial recognition for years. I tried the internet approved method of wiping it clean and reload. I bricked it , or so I thought , this beautiful $900 Apple product. It laid around for awhile, wife not visibly upset, but probably gnawing at her, the pictures from when granddaughter was little. So she gave it a try, picking up where I left off. I gave it another nudge and up popped the Apple, now working again! Pictures gone yes, but quickly forgotten, just like her PIN code!
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RayGeode

telcodad report from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC)

Good stuff there

Donoreo

You know what is popular: using the same PIN everywhere, bank ATM, voicemail password, phone unlock, etc. My FIL does this, and the PIN is 4 digits from a previous home address phone number.

telcodad

RayGeode I still use the first PIN code the bank gave me for ATM way back when. Easy to remember as it was a popular INTEL processor.

Our family name is only 4 letters long, so for my PIN I just use the digits that it makes when you type that on a phone keypad. Thankfully, it is not one of the top 50 PINs listed in that article. 🙂

If I need a 6-digit PIN, I just precede it by my first and middle name initials. 😉

mmmdonuts

In case you’re wondering.

Edit: sharing as a resource, not mine.

https://github.com/Slon104/Common-PIN-Analysis-from-haveibeenpwned.com?tab=readme-ov-file

InternetJeff

For an ATM PIN, my bank lets me use six digits, which I do. I’ve read that anything longer than four digits may not work on some foreign ATMs. I’ve also read that some domestic ATMs will accept up to 12 digits, but I can’t find that reference right now.

According to Reader’s Digest one of the safest ATM pin codes is 8391. Of course, since that’s been published and propagated in the infosphere, would it still be the “safest”?

https://www.rd.com/article/the-worlds-safest-best-pin/

Astyanax

Strange they didn’t ask Kanye for his “input” on this. 😉

I think a lot of people also don’t know you can increase the number of digits and also use alphanumeric characters for the code.

Andyross

vaxvms

InternetJeff Years ago my bank let me use an 8 digit PIN. After a while I discovered that it only used the first for digits for validation. The last 4 were ignored.

InternetJeff

vaxvms Yikes!

telcodad

vaxvms Years ago my bank let me use an 8 digit PIN. After a while I discovered that it only used the first for digits for validation. The last 4 were ignored.

That happens with phone numbers too, extra digits are ignored.

px_eliezer_

telcodad That happens with phone numbers too, extra digits are ignored.

Right, otherwise we would not be able to use 1-800-DISCOVER, 1-800-CONTACTS, 1-800-ESURANCE. and so forth, all of which have one or more extra characters.

In phone usage, this is called “overspelling”.