If you have this PIN number, change it immediately

PSA: If your PIN is 1234, you really, really, need to change it.

It's financial security 101. You don't give yourself the most common PIN in existence.

How do we know this?

Well, password databases have been hacked and leaked for decades.

The released password tables then provide a database from which people can study the most common traits of passwords, in order to combat cyber theft.

That's exactly what Nick Berry, now a data scientist at Facebook, found when he analyzed a numerical password database.

The most popular four-digit numerical passwords were 1234 and 1111.

ScreenshotScreenshot

So what should you change it to?

According to the data, the 15 least popular pins (ranked most used, to least) were as follows:

• 7063, 0.001131 per cent
• 6093, 0.001131 per cent
• 6827, 0.001101 per cent
• 7394, 0.001101 per cent
• 0859, 0.001072 per cent
• 8957, 0.001042 per cent
• 9480, 0.001042 per cent
• 6793, 0.001012 per cent
• 8398, 0.000982 per cent
• 0738, 0.000982 per cent
• 7637, 0.000953 per cent
• 6835, 0.000953 per cent
• 9629, 0.000953 per cent
• 8093, 0.000893 per cent
• 8068, 0.000744 per cent

Also, now that you've read 8068 was historically the least used PIN, don't change your pin to this. Or indeed any other on the list. It's a bad idea.

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Also, don't use the old numbers instead of letters game:

Nick talked more about passwords in 2013 for a TEDx Talk, and it's fascinating:

HT DataGenetics

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