Do you use a PIN? A few weeks ago, Tarah Wheeler, Senior Director of Data Trust, Threat and Vulnerability Management at Splunk, he published on Twitter a list of the most common PINs that users use to protect their smartphones or credit / debit cards.
Wheeler claims that 26% of all phones could be broken (unlocked) with the first 20 PINs. Let's look at the list published by the researcher:
- 1234
- 1111
- 0000
- 1212
- 7777
- 1004
- 2000
- 4444
- 2222
- 6969
- 9999
- 3333
- 5555
- 6666
- 1122
- 1313
- 8888
- 4321
- 2001
- 1010
Are any of the above codes yours? If we look for it above We will find that 1234 is by far the most popular PIN on the market, accounting for about 11% of the total, while PINs 1111, 0000, and 1212 represent approximately 6, 2, and 1 percent, respectively.
Based on the above you should probably review the security offered by the PIN codes.
Although biometric locking methods are now established, they almost always work in parallel with a PIN lock code. The biometric method may make the PIN code used much less frequently, but it does not seem to replace it completely, especially on iOS devices.
As we mentioned in iOS, Apple is asking for 9-digit PINs by default from version 6 onwards, but it seems that there are still many who use four-digit numbers to lock their device.
Maybe it's time for iOS and Android to force their users to use stronger PINs.
Of course if you are one of those who use one of the above PIN codes to lock your device, or on a cash card, change it now…
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