When talking about cybersecurity, there is a lot of emphasis on passwords and very little in PIN codes. These are also the gateway to important parts of each person's life, such as the Credit cards and debit, mobile phone or hotel safeamong other use cases.
Possibly, the fact that the 4 digits that make up a Personal Identification Number give for 10,000 combinations It can give some peace of mind, but as with passwords, there are PIN codes that are repeated much more than others and some that are practically not used.
An analysis of leaked Internet databases collected by Information is Beautiful shows that, as with passwords, many people use very common PINs, which raises the same security problems.
The study, originally carried out by British scientist Nick Berrywho died at the end of 2022, collects 3.4 million PIN codes corresponding to various leaks compiled by Data Genetics. The 20 most used PINs constitute the 26.83% of the totala list in which none of the 10,000 possible combinations are missing for a PIN number.
Unsurprisingly, given the precedent of how we behave with passwords, the most used PIN is 1234 with a percentage of 10.71%. It follows 1111 with 6.01% and 0000 with 1.88%. Of all those analyzed, the vast majority use simple sequences or repetitive patterns. This is the complete list of the 20 most used PIN numbers and their percentages:
| Position | PIN | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1234 | 10.713% |
| 2 | 1111 | 6.016% |
| 3 | 0000 | 1.881% |
| 4 | 1212 | 1.197% |
| 5 | 7777 | 0.745% |
| 6 | 1004 | 0.616% |
| 7 | 2000 | 0.613% |
| 8 | 4444 | 0.526% |
| 9 | 2222 | 0.516% |
| 10 | 6969 | 0.512% |
| eleven | 9999 | 0.451% |
| 12 | 3333 | 0.419% |
| 13 | 5555 | 0.395% |
| 14 | 6666 | 0.391% |
| fifteen | 1122 | 0.366% |
| 16 | 1313 | 0.304% |
| 17 | 8888 | 0.303% |
| 18 | 4321 | 0.293% |
| 19 | 2001 | 0.290% |
| twenty | 1010 | 0.285% |
On the contrary, the 20 least used PIN codes and their percentages are:
| Position | PIN | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| 9,980 | 8557 | 0.001191% |
| 9,981 | 9047 | 0.001161% |
| 9,982 | 8438 | 0.001161% |
| 9,983 | 0439 | 0.001161% |
| 9,984 | 9539 | 0.001161% |
| 9,985 | 8196 | 0.001131% |
| 9,986 | 7063 | 0.001131% |
| 9,987 | 6093 | 0.001131% |
| 9,988 | 6827 | 0.001101% |
| 9,989 | 7394 | 0.001101% |
| 9,990 | 0859 | 0.001072% |
| 9,991 | 8957 | 0.001042% |
| 9,992 | 9480 | 0.001042% |
| 9,993 | 6793 | 0.001012% |
| 9,994 | 8398 | 0.000982% |
| 9,995 | 0738 | 0.000982% |
| 9,996 | 7637 | 0.000953% |
| 9,997 | 6835 | 0.000953% |
| 9,998 | 9629 | 0.000953% |
| 9,999 | 8093 | 0.000893% |
| 10,000 | 8068 | 0.000744% |