What's the safest 4-digit PIN? Not 8068 -- anymore

From MSNBC.com - The safest 4-digit PIN is '8068' — or at least it was, until researchers at Data Genetics told everyone this week. The researchers there went through a set of 3.4 million four-digit personal identification numbers and found "8068" came up only 25 times. But now that this news is out, that's probably a PIN to stay away from. As Softpedia pointed out, would-be thieves may start trying that combination right after they hit "1234" ― the most common PIN, with nearly 11 percent frequency.  While not as common as 1234, there are several numbers that people seem drawn toward. For instance, PINs starting in "19" are common because people like to link their identification numbers with a significant year. In fact, all PINs that start in 19 fall into the top fifth of the dataset.  The top 20 includes all the series in which the first number is repeated throughout (such as 3333) plus 4321, 1212 and 2001. The study also found that many PINs are based on visual clues. Coming in at No. 22 is 2580 ― the numbers that run down the middle of a phone or ATM keypad.  Based on this report, more than10 percent of all bank accounts can be hacked with one guess. Beyond that, one-third of all PINs are made up of just 61 variations.  Read more

What's the safest 4-digit PIN? Not 8068 -- anymore