Is your phone PIN “1234”? No? What about “0000”? Believe it or not, these are two of the most popular phone passcodes people use.
Tarah Wheeler, a cybersecurity expert, revealedthe 20 most common PINs used by mobile phone usersto secure their devices. The data was compiled in 2019 by an InfoSec expert via the SANS Institute.
Then, in 2020, a German-American team of IT security researchers investigated the most common four-digit and six-digit PINS andpresented the resultsat the IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy.
These results might be a few years old now, but human behaviour is slow to change, so chances are that it’s as valid today as it was then.
Here’s a look at all their findings, plus how to change your PIN on iOS and Android devices.
Most popular mobile phone PINs
Tara Wheeler and the SANS Insititute’s findings
According to Wheeler, 26 per cent of all phones are cracked with these 20 four-digit passcodes:
IT security researchers' findings
Philipp Markert, Daniel Bailey, and Professor Markus Durmuth from the Horst Gortz Institute for IT Security at Ruhr-Universität Bochum conducted a study jointly with Dr. Maximilian Golla from the Max Planck Institute for Security and Privacy in Bochum and Professor Adam Aviv from the George Washington University. They found the 10-most popular four-digit pins as well as the 10-most popular six-digit pins.
Common four-digit PINs
Common six-digit PINs
While many of these make sense, some of them are real head-scratchers, such as the “1004” one toward the top of the list. Why that sequence?
It’s certainly an enlightening look into people and their PIN choices - and if your passcode is on the list, we suggest changing it now.
How to change your mobile phone PIN
If your PIN is on the above list, you should be concerned about the vulnerability of your device. You should immediately change your passcode.
