(Newser)
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Sorry to ruin your afternoon, but that PIN number you picked—probably a birthday, month/day combo, or year in the 1900s—is among the easiest for thieves to guess. And if you chose "1234," "1111," or "0000," consider your bank account a slush fund for anyone who steals your card. The firm Data Genetics looked through a database of stolen passwords—mostly for websites—and ranked the popularity of PIN codes, Slate reports. A few tidbits:
- The least popular PIN is 8068, used in less than 0.001% of passwords. But with that information now public, it may not be the best choice.
- The next four least-chosen codes are 8093, 9629, 6835, and 7637.
- People tend to like using even numbers rather than odd.
- 22nd-most popular is 2580. You can figure out why by looking at your phone keypad and seeing which numbers run down the middle.
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