or why it is not a good idea to use your birthday as your pin

  • kubica
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    181 month ago

    It bothers me that if the pin resembles a date, even if it is not the reason for it, it is less secure. Life is not fair, lol.

    • @[email protected]
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      61 month ago

      4 digit pins are not secure. As long as you avoid all the light colored dots on the chart, that’s the most secure you can make it.

      If a system allows brute forcing without a pause, delay, cool down, or lockout, and a 4 digit pin is the only thing preventing access, they will get in.

    • @[email protected]
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      1 month ago

      It’s hard to look at but any of the ones that are black squares in the picture would be the least used ones. It looks like that’s most any that starts in the 7000+ range.

      Edit: 6806 for example.

    • @[email protected]OP
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      101 month ago

      Pin codes are great for quick access if you have a lockout mechanism after 3 failed attempts and it is impossible for an attacker to get the hashed code. It is only secure if you pick a pin that cannot be guessed in 3 attempts like your birthdate but that applies to any password.

      Thats why they are used for credit cards, SIM cards or Bitlocker drive encryption. The hashed code never leaves the secure hardware so you cannot circumvent the lockout.

      Even a 16digit numeric code, which I guess is the upper limit of what you can remember and quickly input, would take just a couple of days to brute force if the attacker does get hold of the hash.

  • @[email protected]
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    1 month ago

    What’s with 7942 being lit up like the North Star?

    There are a couple other curious ones like that, too.

    • @[email protected]
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      51 month ago

      Are you sure that’s not 7931 you’re looking at?

      7931 are the four corners, so it’d be an easy pattern.

    • @skyspydude1
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      41 month ago

      Maybe they’re big fans of the Lego Off-road Fire Rescue set?

    • Doofus Magoo
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      41 month ago

      What’s with 7942 being lit up like the North Star?

      Only thing I can think of is that The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy was published in 1979.

  • @takeheart
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    61 month ago

    Anecdotal but I’ve heard that when banks auto generate PINs for debit cards they filter out some suspicious ones like 0000 or 1234 because it only leads to customers complaining and wanting to change them (more work for the bank). Nowadays the customer can usually change them themselves, so it might be less true.

    • Canadian_Cabinet
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      31 month ago

      When I got my credit card (and credit account) set up, they had me set a pin then and there. But that might be because I had to create the account in person?

    • u/lukmly013 💾 (lemmy.sdf.org)
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      21 month ago

      Maybe they can, but it may not be free.

      Up until a few months ago my bank used to charge €5 for PIN change at the ATM (unpaid accounts only).

  • FauxPseudo
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    31 month ago

    Star Trek fans are visible at 1707

      • FauxPseudo
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        31 month ago

        I must be more asleep than I thought.

  • @[email protected]
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    11 month ago

    I’m proud that 1996 seems to be one of the years least used, but damn is it sad anyways how used it is.